Open Web Foundation launched today. Anything that helps more projects survive the path from concept to adoption is fantastic. The OWF is tackling several human barriers to technical success.

• Legal barriers. Great projects have been stalled for many quarters because contributions to their work product (designs, sample code, specification, etc.) were not cleared. OWF will host projects where all contributions are cleared up front. So the final product arrives unencumbered by patents, trademarks, and other claims.

• Antisocial parents. It's not enough to reveal your great insight to the world. Throwing your newborn specification over the wall usually results in a stillborn flash in the pan. OpenWeb will help innovators foster community around their ideas. So the new product is "owned" by an open community, so it receives diverse and worldly inputs, and learns, adapts, and flourishes independent of its instigators. Ready to survive in the wild.

• Startup Governance. To incorporate or not? Where? In what form? Who holds our IP? How do we take money? OpenWeb will help with this class of problem by sharing templates for organizing and being a corporate umbrella for select projects.

Active customer service discussions in Open Web Foundation

• Can't sign in with OpenID17 minutes ago
• What about autonomo.us?about 2 hours ago
• Open in name but not in spirit?about 2 hours ago
• What are the requirements for participating as an individual?about 2 hours ago
• What is the Open Web Foundation?about 3 hours ago

Get Satisfaction support network

Implicit in all this is the shared belief that the Internet's plumbing is best served by public protocols and the culture of open source. Skype and other companies with software/web platforms may benefit from OWF's resources, peer experience, and processes to rehabilitate their developer relations programs.

Conceived in May 2008, OWF is a seed today. It needs work to build those resources. Get started by joining the Open Web Foundation discussion group. Ask questions on OpenWeb's Get Satisfaction Q&A service.

P.S. I'm spending today at the World Open Space on Open Space 2008 event with Kaliya Hamlin, who's done her bit to promote the dialog that led to OWF. Like the OWF, OSoOS is all about the human side of getting things done, specifically designing rich face to face experiences.

P.P.S. One last thought. I recently joined the first DataPortability.org Steering Group [note to self: be careful what you wish for], taking on some responsibility for achieving a data portable world ("Your Onlife, Everywhere!" TM pending). While we haven't voted on it, the sense of the Data Portability community is the Open Web Foundation is a milestone in Internet history. I expect the breadth, depth, and creativity of technology innovation to widen, deepen, and accelerate under OWF's auspices. More great ideas will survive on their merits, not die on the shoals of bureaucracy, open culture naiveté, or cash flow. The web needs this, the world needs this.

The Open Web Foundation begins today.

Congratulations to all of you who've worked to get us here. 

Now the work begins.

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Slides from David Recordon's OSCON announcement in Portland, Oregon, this morning.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last fall I reviewed Convenos Meeting Center, positioning it as "Your Conference Board Room on the Internet":

Convenos Meeting Center is a complete conference sharing collaborative environment suitable for both ad hoc and scheduled meetings as well as a virtual meeting room for "persistent", project-dedicated business activities such as key account sales strategizing or product management support.

I mentioned, however, that one shortcoming was that its Application Sharing was sluggish and found that Convenos only officially supported Internet Explorer as its platform. Last month Convenos released an upgrade that:

• has "lightning-fast" Application Sharing
• supports Firefox as a browser platform
• is Microsoft Vista tolerant (sessions have been known to run successfully on Vista platforms; they just are not sure they have found all the "gotchas".)
• reduces installation time by about 50%
• provides enhanced Outlook support for scheduling meetings

I did some basic application sharing tests this week and can report that the Application Sharing is very fast -- even transmitting some video (but not audio) from the PGA Tour site. Convenos incorporated a "mirror server" into their collaboration architecture to accomplish this.

As a default Firefox browser user, login to, and operation of, my ongoing "Test" Convenos Meeting Room worked just fine. One of the Convenos support staff, who served as another meeting participant during my trial session mentioned above, related a CMC experience where he did not realize two of the participants were on Vista until they mentioned it well into the session. On the other hand they want to do further testing before claiming full Vista compatibility.

If you are currently a Convenos user the upgrade will be offered automatically when you next log into your Convenos subscription. Should you encounter any difficulties with this route, then simply Uninstall your previous installation, reboot your PC and log back, you will have a successful upgrade. The end result performance is definitely worth taking the time to upgrade.

Convenos can be accessed either as an independent browser-based Windows application or as a Skype Extra as a complement to Skype conversations. The Convenos Meeting Center Extra, which recently received Skype certification, provides a complete "instant meeting" Convenos web conferencing mode which incorporates the upgraded Application Sharing . .

And in the same April Convenos newsletter, they remind of the "Green" benefit of collaboration in addition to the well-known cost and productivity benefits:

Did you know that aviation is the world's fastest growing man-made source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and is a major contributor to global warming? Per PlanetArk, 16,000 commercial airplanes release 600 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. A recent survey conducted by a leading unified communications consultancy group revealed that 70% of organizations surveyed rated "reducing organizational carbon footprints" as a key driver in their decision to invest in web conferencing and collaboration.

In these times of rapidly rising fuel prices, one more consideration for using collaboration tools.

Tags: Convenos, Convenos Meeting Center, application sharing, Skype Extras, Convenos Meeting Center Extra

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lee Dryburgh is gradually putting up videos from the eComm 2008 sessions. Today we have iSkoot CEO Mark Jacobstein's presentation about carrier friendly access to Skype. As mentioned in previous posts on this subject:

• iSkoot uses the robust circuit switched voice channel to connect to an iSkoot server running a Skype session -- generating at a minimum "local" minutes revenue for the carrier
• since calls terminate on Skype there are no termination charges to the carrier
• for the Skypephone service (currently on 3 in 9 countries), customer recruitment costs are minimized since no device subsidy is required.
• long distance
  • iSkoot on the Blackberry, Nokia N-series and E-series, Palm and about 40 other devices can make SkypeOut calls, still providing the carrier with "local" calling revenues while iSkoot receives a share of SkypeOut revenue
  • to faciliate adoption of the Skypephone by carriers, one can only make Skype calls (at no charge), but not SkypeOut calls, thereby leaving the carriers' long distance plans in tact.

Two parts to this presentation: the SD video is below: (alternative HD video)

... and the slides: (alternative PowerPoint version)

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Additional references:

• Skype on Mobile: North American Backhaul is the Ultimate Bottleneck
• What VoIP on Mobile Can Learn from SS7
• 3 Skypephone: It's All About the User Experience

Tags: iSkoot, eComm2008, Mark Jacobstein, Skype, SkypeOut, 3, Skypephone, Blackberry, Nokia

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

Becomes an Extra Premium; implements major server upgrade.

While email and VoIP technology have changed our communications patterns, it seems that faxing still has its place as a communications mode. The growth of PamFax as a worldwide fax service using Skype's underlying Skype Extras infrastructure is demonstrable proof.

A key advantage of PamFax is that it works from a Windows-based PC on any Internet connection worldwide and can readily send a fax to any fax terminal worldwide in about five or six simple steps. Amongst its features PamFax can serve as a Windows printer. It can accept input directly from an Office document or scanner. It's available to use any time that you may need it; there are no upfront payments, subscriptions or registration required.

Since its launch last summer (with a major feature upgrade in late December) this winner of last summer's Skype Mashup competition has steadily increased its usage to a point that proves that sending faxes is still a robust, widely acceptable, widely used communications tool. In January I had occasion to use it to recover tickets forgotten for an event. Dick Schiferli, CEO at PamFax publisher PamConsult, has provided some interesting numbers that demonstrate the ongoing viability of fax services:

• almost 25,000 users have installed PamFax with over 1,000 new installations per week
• average fax is 1.57 pages
• 58% of users who take advantage of the initial free page offer come back to send at least one more revenue generating fax
• paid faxes are averaging 6.5 pages
• for progress notification, 88% of all faxes use Skype chat while 25% use email (both options can be selected)

Christoph Buenger, CTO at PamConsult and lead developer of PamFax, reports recently in their blog that PamFax has received the "Skype Certified" designation. ":

Now you can be sure that this add-on for Skype does what we promise and is of high quality. The certification-team at Skype did some very intense tests of PamFax and also helped us improving the add-on.

And over the past few days, PamConsult has upgraded the PamFax infrastructure and architecture such that:

• A much larger number of formats (>100) are supported
• Independent clusters are running in both Europe and North America
• Fax processing speed and server availability are improved (the 2-page PamFax referenced in the chat session above was sent out at about 8:35 a.m.)

In a PamNews.com blog post Dick states:

We are coming up to 25.000 PamFax users now and have made some decisions how to further improve the platform. In the past 9 months we have seen some issues we don’t like and which impact performance and/or system flexibility. Users have also been providing excellent and valuable feedback.

In sending the fax referenced in the chat session above to ensure the new setup is working I noticed that PamFax needs to add a time stamp to the date information associated with the fax. This would be necessary for any use by the legal profession or anyone involved in time sensitive transactions.

Much like Skype provides real time communications worldwide agnostic to service providers, HD Conferencing from VAPPS provides high quality audio conferencing capabilities worldwide agnostic to service providers, PamFax is growing in its provision of fax services worldwide agnostic to service providers.

Tags: PamFax, Skype Extra, PamConsult, Dick Schiferli, Christoph Buenger, HD Conferencing, Skype, Skype Certified

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

VoIP News has come out with a post discussing what author Jim Higdon deems are "The 5 Best Skype Extras". Jim presents a most interesting perspective on the dyslexic nature of Skype with its superb technology yet turbulent business performance in his statement:

With an unsteady performance since its purchase by eBay Inc., its founder’s costly departure, the emergence of Skype spam, significant competition, outages and poor customer service, many have speculated that Skype could be the next item for auction at eBay. Yet, despite all the bad news and crabby blog posts, more than 100 million people worldwide are registered Skype users, and 60,000 new users sign up every day.

A few comments:

• In my work I am finding that "collaboration" is a catch-all for any service providing an opportunity for a "group", whether two parties or several hundred, and whether unilaterally or interactively, to concurrently communicate together. Ranks right up there in terms of confusion and misuse with the phrase "Unified Communications". Yugma Skype Edition and Lotus Sametime Unyte are desktop sharing applications providing support for conversations, whether voice, text and/or video, while Convenos and Webex historically have provided fully-featured virtual office and virtual conferencing capabilities with voice as an embedded element of the overall collaborative experience.. Different tools for different target markets here
  
• With so many of my network of contacts acquiring Macs these days, I do find that, with Yugma's cross-platform capability which Jim highlights, I am using it as my de facto desktop sharing application in presentations and discussions.
  
• Having had a chance to see both the Sony PlayStationPortable and Sony mylo COM-2 at CES, I have to say the latter offers the more intriguing embedding of Skype. Whereas the PSP only offers voice, the second generation mylo offers both voice and IM along with use of Skype file transfer to send pictures and other files. In fact, I have seen one review where the new mylo should be considered as good competition for the iPod Touch.
  
• Hat tip to Andy for pointing out Jim's post. Note Andy's comments:

What I'm seeing with the add-ins is how Skype has really become a pipe within a pipe, something I felt was coming around the time of eBay's acquisition. With each add-in it becomes easier and easier for two way communications users to build their world around Skype for many interactive, one on one activities, like web conferencing and desktop sharing. This Top 5 list bears that out once again.

Other Skype Journal posts on Jim's Top 5:

• Skylook: A Skype Extras Success Story
• A Most Interesting Skype Mashup: OnState Expands Into Unified Messaging
• OnState CEO Provides More Background
• Brandon Holland and His Affinity for the Echo123 Girl (Skype on AppleTV)

Tags: Skype, Skype Extras, VoIP News, Jim Higdon, VoIP Watch, Sony PlayStationPortable, Sony mylo, Andy Abramson, Skylook, AppleTV, OnState Communications, OnState Unified Messaging

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the past few weeks I have been calling into Alec Saunders' daily SquawkBox where he uses iotum's Free Conference Call on Facebook to discuss (and record) the issues of the day, usually with five to ten participants. In what was the best attended (17 participants) and most lively session yet, Dan York hosted (while Alec flew home from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain) a very engaging interview with Lee Dryburgh, founder of the Emerging Communications Conference (eComm 2008). Later Dan interviewed Thomas Howe, one of the eComm speakers and threw the session open for questions and commentary.

When Alec arrived home this afternoon, he put up a post on today's SquawkBox where you can also click to hear the entire animated discussion.

At one point I had to challenge the contention that Skype usage is falling off. During the past week, concurrent online users has approached (but not crossed) 12 million around noon hour EST (GMT-5) - a long way from the sub-10 million numbers prior to Christmas. (And Borderless Communicator Hudson Barton figures there had to be 1.68 million new Skype users in the past month - I captured today's snapshot since his charts are updated very frequently.) Also, while not widely publicized, Skype accounts from North America almost doubled in 2007 using eBay's reported U.S. percentages as a proxy where US revenue increased 85%. Now if eBay would just release the same customer numbers as released by other US telcos instead of the SEC required bare minimum...

Lee and I briefly chatted about the complex issue of data portability and how it plays in this revolution on the call, but this is a huge problem that we're really only beginning to understand. The telecom industry doesn't understand it all, but the innovators are really beginning to grasp it's full import. Data, our personal data, is a resource. In the world of social media, it may be our most important personal resource. As we learn how to share it effectively with our devices, and with our family, friends and colleagues, the ability to store all this information under our own control somewhere in the "cloud" so it can be accessed any time, anywhere from any device.

Tags: eComm 2008, SquawkBox, Dan York, Lee Dryburgh, Thomas Howe, Skype, Hudson Barton, Alec Saunders, Free Conference Call on Facebook, eBay, Ken Camp, Sheryl Breuker

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype's Halina Mugame, editor of the Skype Developer Program newsletter and weblog, yesterday interviewed OnState CEO Pat Kelly and started her interview, "Less Mess with Unified Messaging", by referencing Skype Journal's recent post announcing OnState's Unified Messaging offering. Questions included:

• Tell us more about this new product. In comparison with current OnState Call Center solution, what new features will be made available via mash-up with Zimbra?
• What makes Zimbra a good solution to integrate with OnState?

But the best line is the last:

Oh, and the important bit, they do all this at an industry-redefining price point.

Read Halina's full post for more background on how OnState's Unified Messaging offering evolved out of their Call Center service.

Tags: Skype, OnState, OnState Unified Messaging, Halina Mugame, Pat Kelly

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This evening Lee Dryburgh, who took the initiative (and risk) to launch the forthcoming Emerging Communications Conference (eComm 2008) issued a "Call for Telecom Industry Wake-Up" where he states:

Communications innovation has been stagnant, in my opinion, for nearly a decade. Telecommunications and Internet communications both seem to be at somewhat of an impasse. The communications industry needs a forum to help break through the stagnancy and highlight the huge opportunity space that is emerging.

Further on Lee states:

The decade long planned protocol basis for delivering a multi-modal client into consumer play (SIP/SIMPLE) has shown little traction; it should be noted that this is the same protocol basis that operators are now hinging their future services around.

Instead four years ago a single private company (Skype) delivered a multi-modal client which was architecturally novel (peer-to-peer based), using their own proprietary protocol and which has gone on to be the most downloaded program in Internet history. So the SIP/SIMPLE vision to “re-engineer the telephone system from the ground up” is off course at best.

Over two years ago Alec Saunders issued his Voice 2.0 Manifesto, pointing out that the value-add for voice going forward will be in the applications. Thomas Howe, with many years' experience involving communications and web services, is building a business around Communications Enhanced Business Processes (CEBP). Dan York is expressing frustration in the realization of interoperability between Skype and other VoIP communications networks. In Lee's interview two weeks ago with Jonathan Christensen, one of those involved in the early days of SIP and now responsible for much of the new technology coming out of Skype, (and the leadoff keynote speaker at eComm 2008), Jonathan laments that..

the vision of the early SIP founders has been largely unrealized in the SIP world. SIP is typically just used for these very mundane trunking applications, like the one that we have, or sending calls between two networks and it's just calls. The vision of multi-modal communications and rich end points has largely failed within the same.

Interesting starting points for the conversations and presentations at eComm 2008. If you're in the telecom business responsible for future ongoing revenues or launching new services you want to attend (and participate). Register here and use "skypejournal08" as a discount code to save 15%.

Tags: eComm 2008, Lee Dryburgh, Alec Saunders, Voice 2.0 Manifesto, Thomas Howe, CEBP, Jonathan Christensen, Skype

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If Skype's auto-update feature has not told you already (which you would encounter when logging out of and back into Skype anytime after 10 a.m. EST this morning), Skype released a hotfix update this morning which addresses some security and crashing issues.

In particular the cross-zone scripting vulnerability that led to closing access to the Metacafe and Dailymotion video sources for sharing via Skype Chat windows and mood message feature has been addressed. Issues such as the inability to answer a second call and to start video when plugging in a webcam during a call have also been resolved. On the other hand while the hotfix has addressed several situations that were causing the Skype client to crash, I still lost a call this afternoon where my Skype client "self-closed" when a called party answered my call. A complete list of fixes is at the link above.

This version also introduces a whitelist/blacklist feature designed to prevent malicious use of the Skype API and potential worm attacks. More details are in the January Developer Newsletter with the following article summary:

Recent attacks to Skype public API have made [it] imperative to define a solution in fighting worm and virus attacks to it. Following up a request by the Security Team to address this issue and take a preventive action, this type of attack also puts at stake Skype’s reliability and security towards our user base.

There will be two levels of White- and Blacklist - Local and Global.

Download the hotfix release here. It can also be accessed via "Help | Check for Updates" in your Skype client. Highly recommended if only for the security issues addressed.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Last November I reviewed Yugma Skype Edition, the only complete cross platform Skype Extra that adds desktop (and now application) sharing as a complement to Skype voice, text and video conversation sessions. Recently Yugma participated in the Skype booth at MacWorld sponsored by Skype's Developer Program to recruit Mac developers into the program.

Last week Yugma SE Team Collaboration received Skype certification. Today Skype and Yugma announced YugmaSE's inclusion as a certified Skype Extra resulting from Yugma's participation in the Skype Developer Program. For Windows users, YugmaSE can be obtained and installed via Skype's Extras Manager (Tools | Do More | Get Extras | Sharing) or at the Skype Extras website. Mac users can obtain the client via the Yugma for Skype website links here; a plug-in for Linux desktops is "coming soon".

In addition to its previously reviewed ability to share across Windows and Mac platforms, the final release also:

• allows you to share either a single designated application or your entire desktop
• provides the option of inviting remote participants¹ to either a fully interactive session or to view (a) shared desktop(s) via a remote viewer.

The "Free Forever" Skype Extra allows the sharing of a designated desktop (as selected by the session host) with ten additional participants at no cost to the host². During the 15-day trial period you can also share mouse and keyboard control, schedule sessions, record and playback sessions and host a "shared file space". Monthly and annual options for a Premium subscription that provides ongoing access to these features, along with email, phone and web-based technical support, are available for hosting an unlimited number of 10, 30, 100 and 500 participant sessions. Audio support can be provided via Skype conferencing (up to ten participants) or a "free" teleconferencing server for which normal long distance access charges will apply. Independent of Yugma support, HighSpeedCoferencing.com could also be used.

As many of my contacts have been acquiring Macs and MacBooks over the past eighteen months, Yugma's Skype Edition has become a very useful tool for presentations and training sessions during the past few months.

¹ Invitations may be sent to both Skype contacts via Skype chat and participants who are not Skype contacts via email

² Note that free sessions will request all participants to register an email address and password; premium subscriptions simply request an identifier name (for the session) and an email address but no registration.

Tags: Skype, Yugma, Yugma Skype Edition, Skype Extras, Skype Developer Program

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mobivox may have its VoxGirl to direct your Skype calls around the world for the cost of a "local" call from any phone set but Brandon Holland, an AppleTV afficiando and Mac developer in Kewlowna, B.C., Canada, has been trying to get a date with Skype's Echo123 girl (she who answers those Skype Test Calls). He's been calling her a lot lately but she keeps on asking him to leave a message which just gets echoed back to him.

Why this interest? Because Brandon has been demonstrating that Skype's API's have allowed him to create an AppleTV plug-in for Skype. To date he has developed it to the point where he can make Skype and SkypeOut calls (while charged against your SkypeOut credits) from an AppleTV with a USB phone added. The USB phone provides the mic (iPod Touch owners, don't get envious) while you listen to the other party on your TV's speakers via the AppleTV's Built-in Line Output. Future plans call for adding most of the other Skype features such as chat, file transfer, SMS messaging, etc.

Brandon has made lots of calls to the Echo123 Girl and has now made available a version 0.1 beta release that you can download here. Because the AppleTV has not exactly been one of Apple's hit products for which an upgrade was announced recently, I was a little calloused about such a development. But then I watched Brandon's video demonstration and found that his personal passion for developing mashups or plug-ins comes through very strongly as well as showing the stages he is taking this development through to make it a complete Skype offering. A definite 'Must Watch"!

Halina Mugame, editor of the Skype Developer Program's newsletter, interviewed Brandon last week: An excerpt:

Was it easy or difficult to develop the Skype plug-in for AppleTV? What was the most difficult part?

Most of it was pretty straightforward, thanks to Skype's easy to use and well documented API, but it did have its difficult moments. I made many calls to echo123 while testing the plug-in! I think that the hardest part was writing my SkypeBride framework which parses the results from the API and sends notifications to the plug-in. Once I had that implemented, the rest of the plug-in was easily written.

Michael Rose at tuaw.com, "The Unofficial Apple Weblog" brings up some caveats:

I can't really picture how this module is going to work for actual calling (and I don't have an Apple TV to try it out on), but if it refines into a true Skype client, and the [delayed] Take 2 update doesn't completely nuke the Apple TV development scene, and Skype gets past its current security worries, this could be a very interesting path towards our videophone-enabled, jet-pack-wearing future.

So while AppleTV is struggling to get market traction, its Mac OS base and the Skype API's have certainly been combined to demonstrate the potential and ease for developing Skype-enabled applications for the Mac world. And add AppleTV to those devices taking Skype beyond the basic telephone handset.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Guest Post: Hudson Barton is a communications consultant whose Borderless Communicator blog not only talks about Skype and related IP communications activity but also attempts to track Skype's "real usage". According to his analysis, Skype has just cracked the 30 million real or "currently active" user number (based on tracking Users Online vs time-of-day). What follows is his post earlier this week summarizing some issues that were raised and discussed on the Skype 3.x discussion Public Chat forum following Dan York's recent guest post on SIP/Skype interconnectivity.

Skype's competitors and critics continually point out that Skype's VOIP architecture is closed and that its API is not adequate for creating a direct connection between the Skype "cloud" and the SIP "cloud". This of course is true, but there are good reasons for it.

1. The security and reliability of the Skype cloud would be seriously compromised if SIP hackers were given the tools to create direct VOIP connections between Skype and the outside world.
2. A SIP gateway to Skype might work if it were handled like SkypeIn/Out. However, I don't think there's a large enough population of SIP users out there to justify the cost of SIPIn/Out. Skype is growing at a rate of 500k-1000k "real users" per month, which is probably 10x faster than the rest of the VOIP world combined. A third party could build these gateways with the presently available API, but nobody is trying it to my knowledge... presumably because there is no demand for it. In any case, the developer (even if it were Skype) would have to justify the cost of such a gateway.
3. An IM (text-only) gateway is very possible and would not compromise Skype's security or strategic position. Look for future interconnections with major players like AIM, gTalk, Yahoo, and MSN.
4. The Skype cloud is far more complex and has far more features than the clouds of any of its competitors. It is not rational to expect any of them to create a feature-for-feature mirror of Skype even if this were something that would be good for Skype (which it is NOT). A partial list of these features: video, SMS, encryption, and file transfer.
5. Relationships between Skype and social networks like MySpace are already possible if there is a partnership agreement. It does not require a change to the Skype API. Note that MySpace is a social network... not a VOIP carrier.
6. Skype may double its revenues this year and it's already profitable. No other VOIP carrier is profitable (unless you want to count a few of the hosted VOIP services from the Telecoms and cable companies). A gateway to Skype will help Skype's competitors far more than it will help Skype, so from a strategic perspective it makes no sense to help the competitors survive. Without Skype's help, they (SunRocket and Vonage for example) are failing at a rapid rate. Meanwhile, "successful" competitors like Packet8 are monetizing themselves by selling off intellectual property. Obviously they "see the writing on the wall."

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Last weekend I traveled to Erie, PA to attend a recognition event involving the Erie Otters junior hockey team; this is a development league for players who eventually end up playing professionally in the National Hockey League. I had ordered my tickets through Ticketmaster last fall when I first learned of the event.

But I drove down only to realize I had left the tickets at home; it's a three hour drive plus time clearing US entry (not excessively long this trip). I did, however, take along my laptop. So, after checking into my hotel, I searched for the confirming email (with help from Windows Desktop Search), looked up my hotel's fax number and then "printed" it to PamFax. Two minutes later I picked up a printed copy of the email, with all the details of my ticket purchase, at the front desk of my hotel.

It was an enjoyable evening for all, especially my neighbor's son, whose leadership of the team when they won a championship five years ago was the reason for the recognition. Thank you, PamFax! (and the Skype Extras infrastructure that made it possible).

Tags: PamFax, Skype Extras, Erie Otters

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Peter Saint-Andre is Executive Director of the XMPP Standards Foundation. XMPP (formerly known as Jabber) is today's leading instant messaging protocol. As Skype users know well, IM is nothing without simple presence signaling. Lee and Peter talked about emerging presence.

Lee Dryburgh, host of the March Emerging Communications conference (co-sponsored by Skype Journal), interviewed Peter Saint-Andre (mp3, 48 MB, 50:00).

Some highlights:

• Presence is real-time digital identity

• Presence shares short lived attributes of "me-now".

• TBD: how to route presence to the right people

• TBD: how that shared presence prompts conversations and interactions

• Needs work: presence resolution and granularity

Lee:

"We are heading into an era of super connectedness between people, people and machines, and across the offline and online worlds. Evolved presence and lifestreams will be very much the plumbing to build that highly-woven fabric."

Photo by pdcawley.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Robert Poe at VoIP News has written a detailed report on how OnState Communications Call Center works, making a couple of points we had overlooked in our coverage:

Fully a software solution with no servers:

Onstate Communications' CallCenter service bundles Skype's business offering with its own software-based ACD (automatic call distribution) capabilities. Unlike with either on-premise or hosted solutions, no calls go through OnState Communications' facilities or equipment — all the CallCenter software does is tell Skype where to send the calls. "It's true software as a service," said OnState Communications co-founder and CEO Pat Kelly. "It's without parallel given the marketplace we're going after."

CallCenter's software-based architecture is the key to OnState Communications' low price. "We have to some degree an unfair advantage, because we don't have to buy massive racks of equipment like [hosted call-center providers] do because all their calls have to run through them," Kelly stated. The cost of toll-free or local phone numbers, and of SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls, are in addition to the service's basic fee. Adding the ability to record 100 percent of agent calls runs a mere $10 extra per month.

A truly international solution:

The Call Center service originally worked only with Skype calls and callers, according to Kelly. OnState Communications soon added SkypeIn and SkypeOut capabilities, which made it possible to call or receive calls from anyone, anywhere. And an upgrade announced on Jan. 9, 2008 expanded the "anywhere" part to international locations. U.S. companies can now get inbound numbers in a variety of overseas markets and have the calls come to their offices via Skype.

Similarly, non-U.S. companies can get toll-free U.S. numbers and send their incoming calls to agents anywhere in the world that Skype goes, for the same flat rate of around 3 cents per minute. "For people providing international support, that's a big thing," said Kelly. "If you're a European provider and want to give your U.S. customers support, you pay big bucks to get a U.S. 800 number to ring in Denmark."

Another case of Skype and a partner's offering disrupting business: Fifteen years ago my employer was paying over $10,000 per month to have support calls routed to Europe (Ireland) via a T1 line during hours when the Los Angeles based headquarters was closed. And that's another saving besides dropping the need for a six figure PBX to run a call center.

Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ever since the Internet became commercial in the mid-90's, the term "Unified Communications" has been tossed around as if it is some form of "holy grail" for a communications offering. PhoneBoy Dameon Welch-Abernathy finds the term somewhat overhyped in his recent post "Unified Communications Is A Pipe Dream":

Anyone who understands the technology knows that unified communications is a pipe dream. Perhaps within a small subset of the possible communication methods, for example the corporate PBX and the corporate-issued mobile phone, it is possible. In the real world, where people actually communicate, it’s not. There are too many ways to communicate and too many parties unwilling to open their networks to allow some unaffiliated third party to create an environment to manage all their communication.

To date, I have not seen a single unified communications “solution” – a buzzword if I ever heard it – incorporate all of the following:

• SMS (not just sending, but receiving)
• Skype
• IM–not just corporate IM, but all public network IM
• SIP, both outgoing to random SIP URLs and incoming SIP calls
• Email from multiple locations
• Social Networking (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Jaiku)

Until it includes SMS on my mobile phone, which none of the solutions I’ve seen even attempt to deal with, it’s not truly unified. Until it includes Skype – a tool I am using more frequently – it’s not unified. Unless it includes a SIP URL that anyone with an open SIP client can reach, it’s not truly unified. Until it handles all my IM stuff, it’s not unified. Until I can get a unified view of all my email and social networking traffic, it’s not unified. [Ed bold]

It would be interesting to see if Microsoft embeds Skype into their Live Communications Server offerings. And note PhoneBoy's positioning of Skype as a peer equivalent of SIP. On the other hand, Skype makes no attempt to position itself as a Unified Communications platform.

Note: Dameon more recently has started posting additional insights on The VoIP Weblog, a publication of the Creative Weblogging network.

Tags: PhoneBoy, PhoneBoy, Dameon Welch-Abernathy, Skype, Unified Communications

Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An interview with Sten Tamkivi, GM Skype e-Commerce and Skype Estonia

As part of Skype's current restructuring, Skype recently made some changes in the Skype Developer Team, moving its primary location from London's business office to the Skype Development office in Tallinn. Recently I had the opportunity to interview Sten Tamkivi, Skype's GM for Development and c-Commerce about these changes and the role he sees for the Skype Developer Program. But first to put the interview in context:

• In March 2007 the Skype Developer Program was transferred to be under Sten's direction
• In the e-commerce role, Sten is responsible for Skype Prime, SkypeFind and SkypeCasts.
• He is also responsible for managing and coordinating administrative activities for the Tallinn office.
• It has been acknowledged by both Sten in this interview, as well as by Peeter and Antoine at the Skype Developer event in New York, that Lenn Pryor's era had driven the launch phase of the program and Paul Amery's leadership had put infrastructure into the program.

Note that, while I have put the following in a Q&A format, I have attempted to summarize the key points in our discussion as we covered the many topics.

Q: What precipitated the recent changes in the Skype Developer Program?

A: Basically we are seeing Skype transition from simply providing a client with communication services into a platform provider from which partners can build out their own unique offerings. We are seeing this not only in offerings from Skype Developer Partners but also in technology licensing relationships such as the recently launched inclusion of Skype for voice calls from MySpace's IM client. With this change in focus and as we developed our plans in the overall review of Skype's activities, we realized that we need to have closer and more spontaneous communications between the Developer Program management and the Skype Developer team.

As we expand the API's to include support for both Mac OS and Linux and evolve with web services API's, we need closer coordination of what is requested from our developer partner base (and user base) when setting our development priorities and assigning resources to the various projects. To quote: "Demands have changed to provide developers with the tools they need" from simply building features and tools as perceived by the developer team.

Continue reading "Skype Developer Program in Flux III: Going Forward" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Guest post by Vincent Oberle, Skype developer

Scripting simple tasks

I’ve been using Python as my main scripting language for a while now. The Skype Linux tools I wrote a little while ago were already in Python. They used a custom wrapper for the API that Skype exposes for 3rd party applications. There is however a much better Python wrapper available now, Skype4Py, which is even officially supported by Skype.

With it, it becomes quite simple to script Skype for some simple tasks. Added benefit of using Python, your scripts will be portable across the 3 desktop platforms supported by Skype, Windows, Mac and Linux.

Here is an example of a small scripts I wrote to solve a problem.

Skype multi-chats are great for discussions on a project or in a team. But sometimes I need an answer from each member of a multi-chat. Just throwing the question in the chat will result that systematically some people don’t answer (don’t ask me why, I don’t get it either…). So I wrote a little script that will send as individual chat messages the text that follows the /all command.

For example write in the multi-chat:

/all When do you go in holidays this summer?

and each member of the chat will receive the “When do you go in holidays this summer?” individual message.

Here is the code:

import Skype4Py
import re

skype = Skype4Py.Skype()
skype.Attach()  # Attach to Skype client

def message_status(Message, Status):
    if Status != Skype4Py.cmsSent: return
    if Message.Sender != skype.CurrentUser: return
    r = re.search (r'/all (.+)', Message.Body)
    if r:
        msg = r.group(1).strip()
        for member in Message.Chat.MemberObjects:
            if member.Handle == skype.CurrentUserHandle:
                continue # don't sent to myself
            skype.SendMessage(member.Handle, msg)

skype.OnMessageStatus = message_status

while(True): pass # Infinite loop, ctrl^C to break

Intercepting chat messages can be used for many things. Do you want a /sms command in a chat that will send an SMS to each member in the chat? It will probably not take you much more lines of code.

Moods to Twitter and command-line file transfer

I have blogged before about how using the Skype4Py library makes it very easy to script Skype and add little features to it, in a portable way. I have written two such little scripts recently. Their code is short and simple, and while I only tested them under Linux they should also work under Windows and Mac. They can be found with my Skype tools.

The first script will send your own mood messages to Twitter. There are two reasons for doing that. First many people use the mood message like Twitter, to say what they think or as a micro-blogging tool. So the mood message can be a very good “Twitter editor”. The second reason is that Skype doesn’t keep an history of your mood messages. This provides such an history, which can be private if you set your Twitter privacy settings accordingly.

The second script is to make my life easier. Under Linux I’m often in the command-line and I often have to send some file to colleagues. Currently that requires to get to the Skype UI, find the contact, choose the Send file option and navigate to the directory where my file to send is, lots of clicks.

So I’ve written the little send_file.py script. Just specify the Skype name(s) or the display name(s) of the people you want to send the file too, and it will open the file selection window to the current directory. From there you just have to choose the file to send. Why not specify directly the file name to transfer on the command-line? The Skype API doesn’t allow this, to prevent external applications to transfer files without the knowledge of the user. Yet despite this limitation, the script makes the file transfer operation much faster.

Note that “send_file.py John” will be enough to send the file to all contacts that have John in their name. Under Linux, this script requires at least Skype 2.0.0.27.

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

Paul Amery and his Skype Developer Partner team have organized another Skype Developer event to be held in lower Manhattan on Monday, December 10, 4 - 7 p.m.. Hosted by Vapps, Inc., Skype partner vendor of HighSpeedConferencing hosted services, this event will involve getting "your thoughts and feedback. The Skype Developer Program is navigating a clear Roadmap for 2008 with a key focus on sustaining our partnerships and our ecosystem while planning for the coming year."

In attendance, Paul Amery, Director of Skype Developer Program, Antoine Bertout, Partners Relation Manager and several key partners, like our host, Vapps. This is your chance to get behind-the-scenes with some of Skype’s key third party applications and a chance to check out some of the latest Skype partners products, understand the partnership route to market and meet our partners who continue to extend the Skype platform.

Skype Journal will be there to report.

View Larger Map

Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Highrise is the simple customer relationship management system from 37 Signals. As part of last weekend's update:

We’ve added a “Skype” option to the phone number data type. Skype numbers are automatically linked up in the contact information sidebar. Clicking a Skype number will dial the number if you have Skype installed on your computer.

This is a work in progress, but we've been using our own version of the SEI Capability Maturity Model to assess the sophistication of Skypified web sites. The five stages of the SJ SSMM:

0. None
1. Static.
2. Dynamic
3. Peering
4. Transactional

37 Signals is half way through Level 1 with Skype names and links.

With a little more explanation... 

Skype Journal Site Skypification Maturity Model

Level 0: None
What's Skype?

Level 1: Static
Storing Skype names and Skype-linking Phone Numbers

Storing and linking people’s Skype names is one part. The other is to offer SkypeOut links for PSTN phone numbers.

Tech: Skype’s “skype:” html protocol to launch Skype from a browser link.

Level 2: Dynamic
Integrating Skype Presence

Is this person available for a call now? You can show a person’s Skype presence in a web page.

You can also use presence information to inform other site behavior. For example, you might aggregate presence data for a team to create collective presence scores.

Tech: Polling Skype’s web presence services

Level 3: Peering
Syncing Skype Profile, Social Graph, and History Data

Skype clients are information rich. You can use that data to enrich profiles, enhance your site’s social graph (who knows whom, how, and how they interact), collect communication histories (who talked to whom, when, for how long), and import chat archives.

You can keep your site's data synced with Skype's by refreshing active connections with your Skype client.

Tech: Using Skype’s client APIs to log in on behalf of a user. With that access you can both read and write to the client, and trigger conversations. At large scale, you will need to operate a Skype client farm.

Level 4: Transactional
Integrating Skype Business/Commerce Services

Skype offers some access to its payment services. PamFax is an example of this, where customers pay with Skype credits for sent faxes.

Tech: Skype publishing and DRM client and web service APIs.

The SJ SSMM helps us assess current Skype readiness and plan a Skype strategic roadmap for our consulting clients.

We've used maturity models in several areas of our consulting practice. I spoke at the 2006 ETel conference about our Skype Journal Platform Program Maturity Model.

Level 0. No API.

Level 1. Afterthought.

Level 2. API follows UI.

Level 3. Ambition and Leadership.

And the Skype Journal Connectivity Maturity Model addresses a device's Skype-completeness.

Level 0. No connection.

Level 1. Skype indifferent.

Level 2. Skype aware.

Level 3. Skype conversant.

How Skype ready is your site?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thomas Howe laments the passing of the eTel conference and the thinking behind its demise that VoIP is boring ... stagnant ... unappealing ... not sexy. But he goes on to say "stick a fork in it baby, VoIP is done". And then he gets to the meat of voice's role going forward:

.... I think that anyone who deeply thinks about this stuff knows that voice, in and of itself, is pretty stagnant and boring. But, if you only consider voice by itself, and voice services as only being about voice, then you’re really at a dead end. But, as Martin Geddes would say, if you see the transformation from horizontal voice into vertical services, where voice stops becoming the important part, and starts supporting the other applications around it… then you see we {are} at the beginning of true, massive and ubiquitous voice enabled applications. I can’t believe that true Internet guys would miss this obvious architectural (in both business and bits) opportunity, but apparently… they have. [author's bold]

When you take out the hardware and, concurrently, you take the complexity out of call center operation as OnState has done for call center management, when you start providing tools for making conversations asynchronous as Evoca has done with their audio web services, when you embed conversation tools (voice and IM) into Salesforce.com as PamConsult has done by developing Skype for Salesforce.com you can start to see voice embedded into customer relationship management applications.

Go back and read my Skype Primer post on Skype's Extra Gallery and Developer Partner Program. Enhance business processes by embedding voice and you have a key differentiator for Skype; enhance business processes by embedding voice and you have not only increased productivity but also increased revenue opportunities for both the partners and their customers.

I look forward to meeting Thomas this week and learning more about embedding voice such that it supports many other vertical applications around it.

Tags: Skype, Thomas Howe, OnState, PamConsult, Evoca, Skype Developer Partners, Skype Extras

Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the fourth post in a series summarizing the current state of Skype's ecosystem and providing a perspective on the assets in place for a new CEO to run with.

Getting to the Present

Alec Saunders' Voice 2.0 Manifesto talks about Applications as the value creators in a Voice 2.0 world. Once again Skype differentiates itself through a two-year-old Skype Developer Partner program as evidenced by Skype's Extras Gallery. But getting to this point was not easy; in fact:

• Developer Partners had to be true entrepreneurs who kept their vision of a value-generating application above all the obstacles encountered in not only developing their offering but also in initially marketing it. Close communication with many players at Skype was a key to resolving many issues.
  
• Skype needed to develop experience with all the subtleties of a developer program from building a roadmap and a viable API set to communicating where Skype would play and where they would let their Partners play in the overall market space.
  
• Skype's API set has evolved over time to the point where only over the past summer, as evidenced through the Skype Mashup competition, it provides a more complete set of developer tools, including many, such as Call Transfer, that have been clamored for by developers. (But Skype is by no means finished yet with delivering API's.)
  
• Skype has also developed a publishing platform, Publishing Studio, that lets developers focus on their application while providing the infrastructure to bring the application to market and generate transactions associated with the application
  
• To provide standards for quality assurance, Skype is in the process of certifying its partners' software applications.

The Voice 2.0 Challenge

Continue reading "A Primer for Skype's Direction - Skype's Extras Gallery and Developer Partner Program" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Two weeks ago, it was announced that PamFax, with its ability not only to fax a document but also work through the Skype Extras Publishing Platform to collect revenues, was the winner of the European Mashup competition as well as the worldwide winner.

Thursday afternoon at a Skype Developer Event in San Jose, a mashup that I had been using during my trip to locate WiFi hotspots in the south Bay Area, JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype, was the recipient of the North American Mashup Cup. After receiving the cup JiWire COO Nidhad Hafiz (right) gave a brief demonstration and I had an opportunity to discuss its development with Nihad and CEO Kevin McKenzie (left). Not only does the JiWire Hotspot Finder locate nearby locations with WiFi access but it also provides local information of interest to the road warrior such as driving directions, weather, road conditions and several catagories of nearby retail, lodging and services locations. From the Skype Press Release:

The JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype allows users to search for and to find WiFi hotspots anywhere in the world through Skype. It allows one to view surrounding access points and then connect to them in just one click. The JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype includes easy keyword search capability; just type in "café" or "hotel" or the name of a specific location to find a nearby hotspot. You can also get local weather or traffic reports, news and directions by simply clicking on the map.

The download of the JiWire Hotspot Finder adds a contact to your Skype Contacts; typing "?" provides a complete set of instructions for using its Natural Language search engine. But not only does entering "restaurants in Sunnyvale, CA" into the chat window bring up a list of five "closest" WiFi-enabled restaurants (with a "next" command to bring up additional restaurants), it also brings up the JiWire WiFi companion that provides the meat of this mashup.

Continue reading "Dawn of the Mashup Age IIa: And the North American Mashup Competition Winner Is ...." »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

When looking at Convenos, think of entering your conference or board room and encountering the audio-visual devices within that room: a slide projector, a whiteboard, a video monitor and probably a display adapter with screen. In essence Convenos Meeting Center moves that board room to the Internet, even to the point where you can enter and leave the board room at will and re-enter to find all your shared content just as you left them previously. Convenos Meeting Center is a complete conference sharing collaborative environment suitable for both ad hoc and scheduled meetings as well as a virtual meeting room for "persistent", project-dedicated business activities such as key account sales strategizing or product management support. Perhaps the best indicator of its effectiveness is that Convenos Meeting Center is being adopted by enterprises requiring up to three figure numbers of licenses.

Sharing Modes: The essence of Convenos is demonstrated in their tab bar's titles:

• Slides: A full presentation slide manager (PowerPoint, PDF and MS Office files, etc.)
• Web: Cobrowsing (sharing links) of web pages
• Draw: A virtual whiteboard with the usual annotation capabilities
• Media: embedded Windows Media Player for full motion video sharing
• AppShare: an application sharing environment for either your full desktop or one individual desktop application window

In addition to displaying the five basic services, the Convenos Meeting Center session displays sidebars that facilitate and support management of the meeting:

Continue reading "Convenos Meeting Center: Your Conference Board Room on the Internet" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

The day following my initial post in this series, Thomas Howe produced what should be archived as a key reference post, The Truth is that Everything Isn't a Mashup, in which he goes on to succinctly articulate a definition of a mashup:

A mashup is an application that uses
1) modern Web integration technologies
2) to take content or services from two independent sources
3) to solve a unique or niche problem.

In general, you’d have to have all three to qualify in my book.

And his key points:

These integration technologies create a “web as platform” architecture, allowing the mashup developer to integrate his[/her] software on top of the world class infrastructures provided by Amazon or AOL, simply, easily and safely.

Mashups take things that might not go together, and puts them together in a valuable way.

.... [mashups] .... serve some small niche or community of interest. This last element isn’t so much about technology, or even business model, but is a very practical matter. Mashup architecture is a light weight architecture: it is best suited for solving small problems simply. [my bold]

When the winners in the Skype Mashup competition are announced over the next few weeks I think you will find that they all fit into Thomas' definition of mashups. (And most of the entries in practice did.) Read Thomas' entire post for completeness.

Update: The issue of the need for "Web integration technologies" has created some interesting discussion on a Skype Mashup Group chat. Does a mashup necessarily need "web integration". Here are two more definitions of mashups:

From TechWeb:

A mixture of content or elements. For example, an application that was built from routines from multiple sources or a Web site that combines content and/or scripts from multiple sources is said to be a mashup.

And the website for a previous mashup event:

What is a mashup?

1. Wikipedia definition: A mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.
2. Layman’s definition: Make technology the way you want it to be!

But if you go to Wikipedia today you get:

A mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into an integrated experience.

Does a mashup have to be a web application? What is the role of web services? Please use the Comments to continue the debate.

Tags: Thomas Howe, mashup, Skype, Skype Mashup

Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

With the first full weekend of September and lots of upcoming conference and seminar activity, we found some interesting posts over the weekend:

Andy Abramson challenges Yahoo execs to admit that "Yahoo isn't talking".

John Musser at ProgrammableWeb.com comments on an interview by Sean Ammirati at Read/WriteTalk with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone about the almost dominating role of the Twitter API's in Twitter's success:

Two things that jumps out is that Biz’s comment that the API has 10x the traffic of the website and that of all that’s happened with Twitter in the past year that “the amount of activity around the API has been the most surprising experience”.

One of the three specific API's mentioned in John's post is Skype to and from Twitter. (Thanks to Julian Bond for the heads-up on this via one of our ongoing Skype Group Chats.)

Ever wonder who dominates the mobile smart phone market? Check the graph at Om's Who's Afraid of Apple & Google? Not Symbian. Seems like Nokia dominates everywhere but North America where RIM (Blackberry) and Windows Mobile share market leadership. Certainly says why the folks at SlingBox are beta testing SlingPlayer for Symbian at the moment with release expected within the next few weeks. And it will be interesting to see how the Skype ecosystem evolves in the Symbian market with IM+ for Skype, iSkoot and Fring emerging as players.

A minor bug fix release for Skype for Windows last week; from your Skype client: Help | Check for Updates.

Tags: VoIP Watch, Yahoo, Twitter, Skype to and from Twitter, Nokia, Symbian, Blackberry, IM+ for Skype, iSkoot, Fring, GigaOm, Symbian, Skype

Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In February 1996, while with Quarterdeck, I came down to my Mississauga-based office early one morning and participated in a demonstration of Quarterdeck's nascent remote collaboration tools to a market analyst presentation in London, UK (another participant was in Paris) using a whiteboarding product (which later became core to Webex's technology), a VoIP offering and IRC chat (this was a year before ICQ introduced IM). Over the past eleven years, the desktop collaboration space, pioneered by Webex, has evolved to the point where, if you can spontaneously download a small client, remote collaboration tools are available for a wide variety of applications from building customer relationships, through remote presentations and customer support, to operating an ongoing, persistent virtual enterprise conference room.

The biggest issue with the early real time collaboration offerings, aside from the widespread availability of an appropriate broadband infrastructure, was getting the voice connection right - both technologically and economically. Until a few years ago, traditional voice conferencing could result in significant phone bills - several hundred dollars for a one hour multi-party conference call, especially when the call involved overseas participants. It was a significant inhibitor to adoption of real time collaboration on a worldwide scale.

Introducing VoIP into the enterprise has significantly reduced those costs. The availability of Skype and its voice conferencing offerings (up to ten participants within Skype or several hundred through Vapps' HighSpeedConferencing.com) has significantly broadened the market for real time collaboration suites to include small-medium enterprises as well as consumer, family and special interest community conferencing. As we shall see in one instance, it also allows Skype to take a role in social networking.

Over the past week I have been evaluating a few desktop collaboration offerings that are being offered within the Skype Extras program. As a heads up my criteria for the evaluation have included:

• transparency relative to the discussion or meeting agenda
  • ease of setup and operation
  • spontaneity
• role of desktop sharing as a real time conversation mode
• emulation of a traditional enterprise conference room
• platform capability (browsers, OS's)

With respect to the last item, I use Firefox as my primary browser (IE 7 just gave me too many headaches). But I have installed the IE Tab and IE View Firefox extensions to facilitate interacting with products that require IE features. As an aside, these, along with FirefoxView, are amongst my most frequently used Firefox extensions; highly recommended for more fluid web browsing. Having these extensions installed certainly makes the evaluation much easier to execute.

As the evaluations proceed I will list the products and links here for ready reference.

• Desktop Collaboration: The Skype Ecosystem Expands
• Convenos Meeting Center: Your Conference Board Room on the Internet
• Yugma Skype Edition: Cross Platform Desktop Sharing

Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the past couple of weeks, as a judge in the recently completed Skype mashup competition, I have gained not simply an awareness of some new Skype Extras candidates but also a broader awareness of the emerging "Mashup" world's environment for creating and delivering mashups. The launch of the Facebook API's a few months ago was probably a key milestone for generating a much broader awareness of the potential of mashups and experiencing mashups.

In addition to reviewing the contest entries and interacting with mashup publishers such as iotum, PamConsult and several Skype-enabled collaboration services, I spent a most interesting hour last week talking with Thomas Howe and Patrick Murphy of the newly formed Thomas Howe Company whose mission is to provide "expertise in the integration of real time communications and the business process". Also coming into the debate is Jeff Pulver's challenge for more innovation in voice services..

The challenge of mashups: When desktop publishing first came on the scene two decades ago a whole new world of "graphics amateurs" appeared on the scene creating documents that were, to say the least, somewhat ugly and violated long held rules on publishing formats, layout, etc.. Eventually desktop publishing products were adopted by graphics houses, training processes emerged in both the private and public sector and the new technology built up its own disciplines around traditional graphics production rules and the new publishing opportunities provided by this new technology. The biggest challenge in this (Skype, Google, Facebook, Google Maps, etc.) API-infused mashup world is to get back to some product management basics to develop and publish mashup-based products and services that solve a real user pain while delivering a value-add. Simply because, as Thomas Howe asserted to me, "the barrier to entry for developing a mashup has become very low" is not a sufficient justification for producing one.

The key issues in the mashup world are:

• Why create a mashup?
• What are the differing expectations for mashups?
• How are the tools for mashups evolving?
• How are mashups getting promoted?
• What is the business model for mashups?

Continue reading "The Dawn of the Mashup World - Part I: Challenges, Why and Expectations" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While VoIP in general has driven down the cost of landline connections (whether at the end point or within the carrier infrastructure), the race is now on to reduce long distance mobile telephony costs. Carriers' voice service plans, especially when including roaming charges, have left an arbitrage gap in the market. .We are starting to see an avalanche of services to address this opportunity. What triggered this post was a press release from Pat Phelan's Cubic Telecom announcing a forthcoming service covering 160 countries involving voice and WiFi.

Cubic Telecom's chief executive officer, Pat Phelan, commented, "We want a world in which you can pick up your mobile phone anywhere and call anyone for as long as you like and not worry about the price. When most people think about driving down the cost of telephone calls, they think of calling from computer-to-computer. We don't. We deliver simple, high quality, high value telephone services direct to the devices that people like to use - their mobile phones. There's no software to download, nothing to configure, nothing new to learn. Our service is straightforward and our network caters to all.

So here we go again! To review:

Mobivox provides low cost long distance calling from any phone in over 40 countries provided you have free or low cost access to one of their points-of-presence. Biggest feature: you can make a call from any phone or mobile device, with either landline or wireless connectivity.. With their service you can also call Skype users and use your Skype account to help reduce your calling costs even further.

This week Truphone announced Truphone Out+, allowing you to make Truphone VoIP calls in "many" countries using your existing mobile number and a feature called carrier pre-select that determines if the number you are calling is a Truphone user. Works fine if you have WiFi or an unlimited 3G data plan. Plans are to have this service initially available in many countries outside the UK and US where current users already obtain a distinctive Truphone number.

James Tagg, Truphone's chief executive officer, said: "Truphone Out+ will encourage access to the Truphone service from countries where we have not yet introduced local number ranges. At a stroke we have massively increased the number of people who can access and benefit from the Truphone service."

Shape Services' IM+ for Skype and the iSkoot service both provide access to Skype IM while using the underlying wireless service to access a Skype gateway for voice calls.

Continue reading "More Mobile Telephony Plays?" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The application/nomination period for the first Skype Mashup Contest ended today. Winners will be announced 12 September. Your entrants, in alphabetical order:

Judging criteria

• Skypeness: What is Skype centric about it?

• Usability: Would we use this ourselves or could we see business/consumer users doing?

• Coolness: Does it make you go 'wow'?

• Usefulness: Does it make life simpler?

• Stability: Is it reliable and robust

• Flair or Weird: Is it different and new, does it make us scratch our heads? Does it look spectacular

Anothr: Skype-based RSS Reader

BitWine: Let’s you Search, Buy, and Sell services

Facebook Call Me on Skype: facebook-Skype presence mashup

JiWire: Hotspot Finder

MessageGroups: Find people to chat/talk to by topic

messagr.com: Find Skype users to talk to in this directory

MyToGo: Remote access to your Skype from a phone

PamBot: Pulls information from the web from a chat

PamFax: Send faxes from Skype

soZiety.com: Find people to practice languages

Smitter: Skype Mood Message to Twitter

suSkype: Social Network

Twitter for Skype: See twitter updates, and make them

Unype: Your Skype buddies on Google Earth (3D)

Sadly, judges (including Jim Courtney and myself) don't win free trips to Prague, Czech Republic, for the results. But the contest winner does.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

While at the Skype Developers Conference in early June, I learned about the first Blackberry application involving Skype; in particular, it followed the model I had been suggesting of using Skype itself for IM but, for a variety of both technical and cost reasons, using the underlying wireless voice plan for voice calls. In practice, IM+ for Skype incorporates Skype IM, SkypeOut, Skype and Skype Conferencing to provide such a capability for the Blackberry, Nokia Symbian 60 phones (certain N-series and E-series versions) and Palm devices. And they now have a web-based beta version that provides Skype access on Apple's new iPhone.

Last week I received an email from Shape Services Vice President of Marketing advising me that IM+ for Skype has received Skype Certification in a new Remote Access category. Congratulations to the Shape Services team on achieving this milestone; we look forward to other Skype Certified products in this category.

Other posts:

• Security, Skype and the Blackberry
• IM+ 2.5: Call Your (Skype and Blackberry Contacts Your Way!
• Skype on the Blackberry - A New Era in the AlwaysOn World
• Seat to Seat Calling via Skype on a Blackberry
• iSkoot Launches Beta Client and Service for Blackberry
• Dan York: Making Skype Calls from the Blackberry.....

Tags: IM+ for Skype, Shape Services, Skype, Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia, Symbian 60, Dan York

Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Skype Mashup competition is heating up with entries arriving at Antoine's desk daily. You can check out the most up-to-date entries here.

But to turn to the full spirit of the MashUp competition. Personally I do not know and have never met Thomas Howe, an independent consultant and VoIP expert, who writes a blog, The Thomas Howe Log, that I follow daily, based on a recommendation by long time acquaintance Alec Saunders, author of the Voice 2.0 Manifesto. And it's over thirty years since I last wrote a computer program (can anybody say FORTRAN?). So while I might have an overview about making mashups, I cannot say I understand all the details. But I do know that mashups are changing the development world in a big way.

Thomas wrote a post yesterday that exemplifies the spirit of the mashup competition, API of the Week: DBpedia API.

It's not in any way a telephony API, and that's my point. A large number of innovative applications that use telephony will include APIs that have NOTHING to do with telephony. The DBPedia API is an effort to put a Web Services API on top of the Internet's encylopedia.

...Essentially, it allows you to access all of Wikipedia's 1.6 million articles from your application, whatever that application might be.

Read the post but he articulates the essence of the MashUp competition when he says:

The twenty-something-don't-know-or-care-about-SS7 engineer will sit down and design their version of the hot-or-not site one day, and use a whole bunch of crazy APIs to put together the application. Then, they will go have a beer, come back, and say "You know, it would be really cool if you could just call the person you want to hook up with. Is there an API for that?" They won't even consider for a minute the words "termination", "LATA" or "CALEA". They're just writing an application. They need an API for some function, and it will take a few minutes to integrate it into their application. And, there are many, many more of these guys than all the telecom engineers that have ever, and will ever, exist.

Can we see an entry that mashes up Skype with Wikipedia? Don't know but I thought I'd throw it out as a challenge. As Thomas concludes: "Go check it out; let your imagination run." Just over two weeks left to the August 31, 2007 deadline.

In a subsequent post, Thomas announces his partnership with Programmable Web, a key mashup resource often referenced by Skype personnel.

Tags: Skype Mashup, Skype, Thomas Howe, DBpedia API, Wikipedia, Thomas Howe Log

Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MyToGo connects your most used PSTN phones to reach your most frequently called Skype Contacts.

While Skype provides the ability to call another Skype user anywhere in the world at no cost and to call PSTN numbers worldwide for minimal charges (except for calls to non-North American mobile phones that can run an order of magnitude larger than "minimal"), we are not always at a device, such as a PC or Skype phone, which has direct access to Skype. We have already seen services on mobile devices that allow you to chat via Skype IM on the mobile device while using the underlying wireless network to facilitate attachment to a Skype gateway that completes a Skype call from the wireless device. Now arriving on the scene are three "ToGo" services that allow you to connect to Skype on your PC from any PSTN phone device.(landline and/or mobile) with the phone's inherent touchtone dialpad as the user interface.

Mobivox was the initial service that provides, via local access numbers in over 40 countries, an ability to call your Skype Contacts by issuing voice commands. Works from any phone platform, but does require registration with Mobivox and a directory of POP access points. There could arise speech recognition issues if your English is not clear enough. No IM component; nothing to download to the device, no Skype on the PC required.

SkypeToGo is a recently launched Skype Pro service that allows you to turn one most frequently called remote (usually international) into a "local" number from within your local calling zone. With SkypeToGo, you can call, from any PSTN phone, an assigned "local" number which, via Skype, will connect you to the single designated remote (international) number. Great for building personal relationships with that "significant other" who happens to live in a remote country or a business relationship with your most important international customer. With SkypeToGo you will still pay wireless minutes or any landline connection charges to the assigned "local" number plus the SkypeOut charges associated with calling the destination number. So SkypeToGo works as:

Any “local” phone --> SkypeToGo “local” number --> one designated International phone

Skype UberDeveloper Don Kennedy's ZOverLord Creations has offered up for beta testing a new service called MyToGo, combining SkypeIn, the recently launched Skype Call Transfer and Skype's Speed Dial feature, to reduce the costs for calling up to 396 destinations worldwide. At the calling end, however, you are limited to calling from three phone numbers: your mobile phone, your home phone and your office phone (or appropriate proxies). But these are the phones from which you would probably place most of your calls when away from a direct Skype client access situation.

Continue reading "Skype as a Minute Stealer" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Since Skype doesn't offer web access or clients for all platforms, there's a boutique industry filling gaps in Skype's product line. The IM+ line added an iPhone browser client with callback service.

SHAPE Services hosts a huge bank of Skype clients. Their IM+ for Skype web app, Skype for iPhone, talks to those Skype clients via the Skype API.

Conclusions:

Free for now, except for SkypeOut fees for inbound and outbound voice calls. 

Underfeatured, lacking Skype 1.0 tools like group chats, file transfers, and end-to-end encryption.

Skype should have offered web chat/calling features and a set of web services available a year ago. So it is very nice of Shape to fill this gap while Skype catches up (and Skype is on this trajectory).

A walk through Skype for iPhone.

Log in.

See your contacts.

Touch one, Jim Courtney in this case.

Click on the blue Chat button and chat away.

Or press the green Call button to call Jim. You can see how many Skype credits are in your account. IM+ makes a SkypeOut call to the phone number you put here, so you can take this call on your mobile, landline or SkypeIn number.

If you click the "More" button you see:

• Conference Call (coming soon)
  
• Add Contact (coming soon)
  
• About
  
• Help
  
• Hide Offline
• Sign Out
  

See also:

• Skype Journal: Security, Skype and the Blackberry
• Skype Journal: IM+ 2.5: Call Your (Skype and Blackberry) Contacts Your Way!
• Skype Journal: iSkoot Launches Beta Client and Service for Blackberry 
• Skype Journal: Nokia N800 is my personal Skype chat device

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

One aspect of the telephony domain that has been absent from the Skype ecosystem has been the ability to fax documents via Skype. Fundamentally, sending a fax is an asynchronous one-way activity that has "ridden" the phone network to transmit a document to a device that is able to decode the fax signal back into a readable paper document.. Skype itself has traditionally allowed document exchange via the file transfer feature; however, it does not address the issue of sending a document to a destination without Skype access or sending "executed" documents in legal transactions. Even for those who have a fax machine in their home office, sending a fax while traveling can be a challenging (and usually somewhat expensive) experience.

PamConsult, publishers of the pioneering Skype Extra, Pamela, this week launched a beta version of their forthcoming fax utility, PamFax which will be available as a Skype Extra. PamFax makes faxing a document from any broadband-connected PC a relatively straight forward experience:

• Designate the document to be sent
• Enter the recipient information (multiple recipients allowed)
• Select a cover page
• Enter the cover page message
• Select notification methods: Skype Chat, SMS and/or email
• Pay for the fax
  • Option: Preview the fax

The fax is then sent, followed by receipt of the selected notifications in, say, a Skype Chat window, an email message and/or an SMS message.

During the process:

Continue reading "PamFax: Sending Faxes via Skype" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

Business solutions from Skype partners demonstrate innovation and disruption built around Skype's unique infrastructure.

This past Monday a very frustrated Jeff Pulver put out a Call for More Innovation in Voice Services. A widely acclaimed VoIP industry pioneer, Jeff has long recognized that VoIP and associated IP-based services provide a platform for offering value-add to facilitate both business services and build social networks through voice-enhanced applications. At a panel discussion last Friday called :"Where are the VoIP Services?" Jeff reports:

"... From my perspective, I didn’t want to hear about a service that was simply a variation on Call Forwarding and/or Voicemail. What I what I was looking for was something different. Something cool. Something that truly helped to redefine communications. But I didn’t hear about anything remotely interesting. So, I answered the question by suggesting to my fellow panelists and to the delegates in attendance that "they had no guts". That they failed in taking advantage of the IP based platform presented to them to deliver innovative services and instead chose to take the easy way out and simply use their platform to replicate the same services that TDM based systems gave us. That they decided to build equipment for the telcos where the money was and in the process sacrificed empowering the communications revolution and our ability to deliver services never before possible without the advent of IP. [my italics, underliine and typo edits].

I say that the outcome of this panel discussion that Jeff decries happened because nobody looked at the Skype ecosystem for examples of VoIP Services . In the Skype ecosystem we can see the recipe for a foundation for innovative IP-based services:

• Start with a full real time conversation platform that combines voice, presence and text messaging.
• Start with a real time conversation platform that is enhanced with conferencing, video, call transfer, call forwarding, voice messaging and file transfer.
• Start with an IP-based ecosystem that has a set of API's to facilitate application development and mashups
• Start with a platform for which hardware has been developed to take advantage of many features of the platform.
• Start with a platform that can be accessed via not only Windows, Mac and Linux PC's but also USB phones, PC-free phone sets, mobile phones, Blackberries (here and here) and the Nokia N800 Internet tablets.

Alec Saunders, in his Voice 2.0 Manifesto, points out that the value-add in voice will be the applications that embed voice. And we are seeing the outcome of this Manifesto in the Skype partner applications that are evolving based on the Skype platform:

Continue reading "Skype Partners Answer Jeff's Call for Innovation in Voice Services" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Just received word from Lester Madden at Skype that Skype has reversed the digits in the deadline for submission of API suggestions to July 31.

And, from one of the third party members of a Skype group chat, an appeal to see more suggestions re web services. Another suggestion: if you have any API requests lingering in the Skype forums, make sure you get them copied over to Skype's API Requirements wiki.

Remember your suggestion only gets considered if you submit. Just do it!

Tags: Skype API

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another Option Available as a Skype Mobile Solution for the Blackberry

Whereas two months ago, there was a lack of any access to Skype from a Blackberry, at least three offerings have arrived on the scene in the interim; previously Skype Journal has reported on Mobivox and IM+ for Skype Software.. For reasons I have explained in the past I have suggested that the best option for mobile Skype was to provide an IM client but use an underlying wireless protocol (GSM, eVDO and their 3G counterparts) to provide voice communication. Pure VoIP on wireless data plans makes no sense from either economic nor resource use viewpoint.

Last August Skype and iSkoot announced a Co-Marketing Agreement wherein Skype would certify iSkoot's mobile solution for making and receiving Skype calls on mobile devices. iSkoot's initial appearance was as one of many services offered by 3 Group's X-Series service in the U.K. last fall; the service is now offered in seven additional countries served by Hutchison Whampoa. Basically with their service, the Skype client is pre-installed on handhelds such as the Nokia N73, and others from LG and Ericsson.

On Monday iSkoot launched a beta of iSkoot 1.1 mobile application for Blackberry which provides a comprehensive Skype on Blackberry experience including IM (presence/chat) and voice communications. As with IM+ for Skype Software, iSkoot extends the Skype user's reach out to anyone with a Blackberry. .The Skype client is shown on the right; it provides both IM and voice calling access to all your Skype contacts. Hidden by the bottom of the menu are four familiar icons via whose selection you can view all your contacts; or either of your Skype or SkypeOut contacts. The rightmost (fourth) icon provides access to chat sessions; the red marker indicates a chat session that you have not yet viewed. Clicking on the Blackberry roller wheel (or the more recent Blackberries' five-way Trackball) brings up a menu from which you can select various Skype activities as shown including management of your status and your contacts.

Continue reading " iSkoot Launches Beta Client and Service for Blackberry" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Wishlists by Friday. It's not a big window, but Skype's inviting you to edit the 2008 API Requirements wiki page with your tactical and blue sky requirements.

New web services? Enhancements to existing APIs? New objects and capabilities? Nothing's taboo.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Innovation Alert: Challenging All MashUp Junkies!

Over the past couple of years the developer world has been challenged to innovate in a way that brings a higher degree of interactivity and more potential for web services such that we can envision being able to interconnect applications and data to serve a customized purpose whether for a large business audience or to satisfy an individual's desire to experiment. Mashups are appearing as buttons and hyperlinks on websites and blogs, linking applications and data across a wide range of vertical market sectors. In fact the Programmable Web's Mashup DashBoard is tracking mashups in real time and provides a daily view of the vertical markets served. (If you click on the diagram above to go to the Dashboard, you can click on each sector to find the mashups for the respective market sector.)

As preannounced at Skype DevCon last week, today marks the launch of Skype's Summer 2007 Mashup competition.. An example pointed out at the time was the then new Twitter4Skype mashup that brought your Twitter activity into into a Skype chat window. From the Mashup Competition wiki:

Ok, ok. So you're thinking "aren't mashups just another Web 2.0 bandwagon?"

Well hold your cynicism for a moment! We (in Skype Developer Program) think the time is right for a focused effort on Mashups. With professional mashup creator IDE's, hundreds of API programs and thousands of mashups available, the time has never been better for mashups to make life better for users. If you're in doubt about the number of opportunities for 'creative plumbing' check out: the Programmable Web Mashup website.

Skype hires smart people, but we don't profess to own every smart idea in the world. That is where you come in....

The ground rules include:

Continue reading "Skype Summer 2007 Mashup Competition" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

And demystifying North Americans' need for SkypePro

With the launch of Skype 3.5 beta yesterday, Skype beta users are introduced to the ability to perform Call Transfer within the Skype client. Don "ZOverLord" Kennedy has written an excellent summary of how Call Transfer works; he has also provided his own "free-for-non-commercial-use" Skype Call Transfer Example utility which can also be obtained as a Skype Extra. (Call Transfer is also available as a feature within Pamela 3.5.)

Call Transfer from Skype Name to Skype Name is free. However, Call Transfer for Skype Name to SkypeOut or for SkypeIn to SkypeOut require that you purchase Skype Pro -- as a complement to SkypeOut offerings either on a per minute basis or via Skype's North American Unlimited Calling Plan -- at $3.00 per month. The amount is simply deducted monthly from your Skype Credits balance. The good news is that a 12 month SkypeIn subscription is reduced from $60 to $30 if you are a Skype Pro subscriber and Skype Voice Mail is included as a Skype Pro subscriber.

Continue reading "Full Skype Call Transfer Arrives on the Scene" »

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

Auctomatic to launch at eBay Live, sans any Skypey stuff, but with a morosely funny job listing.

Google Checkout Freedom Party at eBay Live will protest Checkout ban. I love the idea of partying to protest. More from AuctionBytes. RSVP for Thursday night.

eBay and PayPal gave out Star Developer awards yesterday. Skype didn't, not really its show yet.

Peter Kalmström's Skype Toolbar for Office now works with Microsoft Office 2007. Even Access, Visio, and Project. I have to think how this fits into project communication and workflows.

Skype says 21 million "extras" downloaded in the last six months. That's Lester Madden's "Concepts to Cash" slide show on the left.

Skype's Paul Amery is hiring a communication pro for Skype's DevZone, the better to recruit, educate and retain independent programmers. Three skills that might have been mentioned: video/vlogging, social media a la facebook and myspace, and journalism. Tallinn based and budgeted.

Did you know GIPS sells their own SIP softphone? Their enterprise version just turned 5.0, using the same codecs (the program that turns sound into bits and back) they license to Skype, Yahoo!, AOL, Nortel. No wonder Skype's busy building their own codecs.

iLike on Facebook claims it's more viral than Skype. Two weeks old, 6 million users, adding 300k per day. Three eBay apps on Facebook.

Some folks use Evoca to share recorded panel sessions. It's hot here in the Bay Area; craving an iced Evoca Cola.

Nice Networkworld column on the VoSky Call Center from April. Totally missed it.

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

Newly discovered Blackberry application handles Skype functionality

Normally I speak to Skype's North American Marketing Communications Manager on Skype between our respective PC's. But when Jennifer called me via Skype on my Blackberry, even though we were only one row apart on a bus to see PayPal's sponsored Blue Man Group performance, I knew I had found an answer to my long standing request to give me Skype IM capability on my Blackberry accompanied by an underlying voice service that does not require the overhead (not to mention extra long latencies) that would be required of a VoIP client on a 2.xG mobile phone.

But it's late and my Hilton Hotel has a poor (can you say ultra-slow) WiFi connection, so more to come tomorrow along with a report on the first day of eBay-Skype Developer Conference.

Tags: Skype, Blackberry, eBayDevCon07

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the past few years Live Chat, along with Click-to-Call, have become common tools embedded in marketing and e-commerce websites. To be effective the chat or voice session has to assume site visitors have no other tools beyond the browser to act as a chat client or voice device. Live Person has become one of the top Live Chat tools over the past couple of years, accelerated by its addition of a Click-to-Call feature last year, but there are several others.

While live chat and click-to-call tools have evolved in the Skype ecosystem, they usually assume both parties have Skype installed. Live chat as a marketing tool within the Skype ecosystem would require that a site visitor be able to create a chat client window "on-the-fly" when clicking on a live chat link with no special skills, "dedicated" tools or, most significantly, no Skype installation.

Late in February OnState Communications launched their OnState ACD for Skype 3.0, offering a call center solution bringing over 20 years experience as executives of a call center solution provider to the Skype ecosystem. However, delayed release of Skype's long awaited Call Transfer capability has slowed adoption and roll-out; as a result the OnState team has carried out development activity that has resulted in a Skype-based solution for the traditional "live chat" market.

In particular OnState is announcing OnState ACD Chat Support which permits Skype-enabled call center agents to hold visitor-initiated chat sessions with any website visitor. Best part is that the visitor does not have to be a Skype user, making OnState's live chat offering, as with legacy live chat offerings, totally independent of the visitor's PC configuration (other than the requirement to have a web browser). The website owner simply installs a "Live Chat" button at an appropriate location on the website. Visitors can then click on the button to request a chat session with a representative (say, sales agent or customer service rep); a web-based chat window, as shown on the right, will open up on the visitor's PC. The agent will see a chat request on their Skype IM client and can then initiate a chat discussion with the site visitor. Of particular note are:

• The site visitor does not need to be a Skype user nor is there any client to download.
• The chat window can be embedded or floating
• The agent can pop-up a chat window while the visitor is browsing.

Continue reading "OnState Converts Skype IM Client into a Live Chat Center Agent" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Paul Amery is Director of the Skype Developer Program, based in London. This is an informal interview shot under some willow trees outside the Santa Clara Convention Center in California for seven minutes in mid-May 2007 by Phil Wolff, editor of Skype Journal. Paul had given a talk that morning to more than one hundred programmers at the TMC Communications Developer Conference 2007.

Continue reading "Skype Journal interview with Paul Amery of the Skype Developer Program" »

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

I'm not cool enough to get into some clubs. Most clubs. Too old, wrong clothes, insufficient bling.

And that's right.

People who run clubs, even public ones, have standards for entrance.

Bouncers I'd like to run on public chats:

Captcha. Are you human? No bots but the host's bots.

Language. Parlez vous français? The chat room asks you a question in its required language. Can you answer it?

Expertise. Are you smarter than a fifth grader? Enter only if you can explain the difference between Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. Or solve a programming puzzle. Or list three reasons Governor Bill Richardson should be the next President of the United States.

Age bracket. Too old. We could be discussing retirement homes and don't want any youngsters in the room. Or just people within a year or two.

Social proximity. It's who you know. You have to already know someone in the room. This might be automatic, via buddy list. It might also involve your name being flashed to the membership and someone saying they know you.

Authentication. Prove you're not a muggle. Perhaps OpenID. Or your employee ID.

Queue waiting time. Not so fast, buddy. Everyone must wait an hour before entry, just to prove you care. And aren't still angry.

Bring a gift. Tokens of  respect. Maybe it's a link to hidden gem on the Internet, a snippet of code, or a PayPal payment.

Read a disclaimer. Just so you know. Rules of the road, that we are insane about Harry Potter,

Subject to a Vote of the Membership. Probation. Any member can whiteball/blackball a new member in the first n minutes. 

Think of these barriers as defending the tribe, shaping the mix of people in the group, and a rite of passage for those joining it.

We need an API construct, I think. An event between applying and joining. In theory, you might have a whole new class of Skype Plug-In or Extra.

Thanks to Ants and the people he ejected from Skype DevZone Public Chat for Inspiration. Thanks to the Skype 3.X Public Chat for the play-by-play commentary on Ants' moderation. And thanks to hoggardb for the photo of the Chelsea bouncer.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Skype Developer Program is all about delivering software applications where real time conversation (aka voice and IM) is a key element for providing a mission critical business resource. For instance, OnState brings call center experience, Skylook provides a key tool for customer relationship management; Pamela supports podcasting and other voice recording applications, Unyte allows call participants to share presentations and documents in real time across dispersed geographical barriers. Alec Saunders articulated the role of software as the key to telecommunications value-add in his Voice 2.0 Manifesto eighteen months ago.

So when a legacy telco talks about learning software tricks, we know the message is getting through. Om Malik has written an excellent piece "Telco dogs need to learn software tricks" reporting how software is becoming a key to BT's success in the 21st century:

... BT was one telco that completely understood that it was facing uncertain times, and had no choice but to reinvent itself to survive.

The senior BT management understood that while broadband was a start point for its reinvention, it had to boldly go where no telecom had gone before, if they wanted to survive. They had to behave and think like an Internet-based software company.

But to focus on a comment: in his summary paragraph:

Instead of spending $6 billion on IPTV projects, AT&T could say buy a Salesforce.com (have some money left over for satellite-based triple play) and ensure a few hundred thousand folks paying $60-odd dollars a month for the CRM as a service.

I seem to recall Skype got a bit of jump on a Salesforce.com relationship last week with its announcement of a Connector for embedding the Skype client within the Salesforce.com UI.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lots of hype last week (Mark Evans, VoIP Watch, Telelphone World) about a new service from Mobivox beta whose offering effectively lets you call your Skype contacts from a mobile phone. Once registered on the service, simply dial a local access number, tell VoxGirl whom you want to reach via Skype and a connection is made. I tried the service over the past week with some success but also have to issue some cautions as the key word here is "beta".

I have spoken with Stephane Marceau, CEO of Mobivox; he assures me that their primary goal is to enhance the Skype experience. Before releasing the beta version last week they did an alpha phase that involved over 1,000 users and raised many issues that have been addressed.. This beta is surfacing additional issues that they intend to tackle. With this background here are my cautions:

First, as acknowledged on their site, Mobivox "uses the Skype™ API but is not endorsed, certified or otherwise approved in any way by Skype™". And, as will be shown, in its current beta form, for good reason. On the other hand, when they have developed the basic service to an acceptable level, they intend to seek Skype certification.

Continue reading "A Caution re Third Party Skype Access" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With the launch of Skype for Salesforce.com last week, I had the opportunity to talk with some of the people behind the launch and learn more about its evolution as a free Salesforce AppExchange offering.

Scott Miller, Skype's Director of Business Development, based in San Jose, pointed out that Skype initially partnered with Salesforce.com back in January 2006 with a sample application, called Skype Tab Opportunity Conference Call, to assist with the launch of AppExchange and to show that a Skype-Salesforce mashup was feasible. Basically it added a Skype Conference tab to the Salesforce.com user interface. The level of interest in this mashup was such that Skype and Salesforce.com decided to work together to create the more comprehensive Skype for Salesforce.com launched last week which brings the full Skype experience into Salesforce.com. Effectively the sales or service agent using Salesforce.com can manage all their Skype activity from within the Salesforce.com interface. The key is the Skype "right click" context menu which can launch voice, chat and other Skype activities from any location with a contact's name; other features include a phone dialer, conference call tab and integrated note taking. Check out the full Test Drive demo here.

Continue reading "Skype for Salesforce: Evolution, Promotion and Initial Implementation" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently Skype announced the crossing of a benchmark for the Skype Extras program: passing the ten million download mark in just over four months of availability. In the past I have written about a few of their successful partners: Pamela, Skylook, Unyte and HighSpeedConferencing.com. According to this press release (and the Skype Extras Downloads report) the number one consumer application is Reallusion's Crazy Talk for Skype while the most downloaded business application is the Pamela Call Recorder. However, even though they are number 12 on downloads, Skylook has been able to develop a very successful business model through identification of their core customer base market niche and delivering of features they have requested.

During May and June there are one European and two North American events where Paul Amery, Director, Skype Developers Program, and his Developer Program colleagues will be promoting participation in the Skype Extras program:

• Last week's eBay DevCon Munich
• This week's keynote presentation by Paul Amery a,t TMC's Communication Developer Conference
• June's eBay Developer Conference in Boston

During my visit to Skype's London office in March I spent a couple of hours with Paul and Lester Madden, Manager of Partner and Development Relations. Our discussion centered around the three primary goals for the Skype Developer Program and how they planned, at a high level, to achieve them. These goals are:

• Building Awareness of Skype Extras
• Addressing the issue of "compete vs complement"
• Ensuring quality of services

Continue reading "Skype Extras: Goals and Achievements" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Salesforce.com has been an ongoing web application success story over the past few years. Securely accessing an individual enterprise's customer database on-demand from the web and promoted largely through viral customer adoption, I have encountered many enterprises who have come to rely on Salesforce.com as their primary Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. It is a classic in terms of how it allows businesses of all sizes to manage their customer database without the hassles of dealing with IT management while adopting to the individual enterprise's business rules and building a secure archive of the enterprise's sales and support activities. From their own company website:

Why? Perhaps it's because we deliver integrated, completely customizable enterprise applications for companies of all sizes. Or maybe it's because Salesforce is so easy to learn and use, and thanks to the power of the on-demand Apex platform, it can be up and running in weeks or days—not the months or years required by traditional client/server CRM software. Or it could be the unprecedented speed with which our customers see real, tangible ROI. Or maybe it's because of our 100-percent dedication to the success of our customers.

Today Skype and Salesforce.com issued a press release announcing:

"the availability of a new version of Skype for Salesforce via salesforce.com's AppExchange. Skype for Salesforce provides seamless Skype integration into Salesforce on-demand CRM applications and aims to improve workforce productivity and to streamline customer and partner communication."

Skype for Salesforce enables real time customer conversations via:

Continue reading "Skype for SalesForce Launched" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

There's good news about Skype for Linux 1.4 Alpha from Raul on Skype's Garage blog.

• Audio quality improvements, on par with Windows 3.2 and Mac 2.6.
• More reliable code, thanks to a major rewrite building on Trolltech's Qt 4.2.
• Better device detection
• ALSA plugins support
• UI improvements for file transfer and general layout

This Alpha release is far from done. It has 20 substantial issues affecting audio, chats, contact lists, history, notifications, file transfers, and option settings. Entire features are missing, including contact list groups, creating new accounts, packaged versions and the whole Skype API.

This work is all straightforward. The hard stuff was the rewrite of the underlying framework and UI. I'm betting we'll see Skype's Linux builds follow Windows' by weeks instead of quarters now.

Get the October 2006 gold build if you want to use Skype on Linux. The developer page for Skype for Linux is a great resource. Read about previous progress in this post on February updates.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Under the umbrella of the annual eBay Developers Conference is a Skype Developers Conference in Boston June 11-13. Under the Consultants and Integrators Track are listed four key Skype management speakers associated with the Skype Developer Program:

Skype: A global opportunity
Paul Amery
Skype has over 171 196 million registered users from all 4 corners of the globe. As a developer Skype can provide you with the tools to build your application, and help you market your application to the users. This session presents to you the global opportunity available to developers.

Skype Development Techniques and Tools
Peter Kalmstrom
Skype is offering a range of different tools and techniques for developers. Controlling the Skype client via the API, showing presence on the web or building a Skype extra. All will be covered!

Skype Extras: Concept to Cash
Lester Madden
If you’re a developer looking to build applications for Skype’s global market place then this session is for you. In this session you will learn all you need to know about building and deploying Skype extras with the publishing studio.

Skype Public APIs and Developer Services
Peeter Motskula
With more than 196 million registered users worldwide, a number of public APIs, the Extras distribution framework, and developer services ranging from technical support to software certification, Skype is a great platform for software developers. In this session, Peeter Motskula gives a high-level overview of the APIs and services offered. Questions and ideas welcome.

More conference information here; registration here. And Andy has the speaker schedule here.

Caveat: Skype has 196 million registered accounts; this includes dead accounts, users with multiple accounts and other registrations that should be revisited to ensure currency of use. It's well know in direct mail advertising and telemarketing that a user base has significant changes over time. At this time perhaps the most accurate indicator of size and usage trends is that Skype currently peaks at over 9.5 million users online early in the North American business day. Even this number represents a significant market size opportunity for (prospective) Skype Developer Partners.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday I reviewed the recently released Nokia N800 Internet Tablet as a mobile Casual Computing device capable of executing many Internet activities.

Ken Camp is currently attending a IT security conference in Minneapolis where he found several attendees who had actually purchased this device. Why were they so keen on it?

I was curious why so many. That penetration rate seems huge to me. So I asked around. And I learned why - Maemo. The N800 is not an S60 device. It doesn't run Symbian. It's viewed as a Linux workstation. Someone showed me Kismet (a very popular wireless sniffer tool) on their N800. They use it for wireless security.

One person described working on getting Metasploit running on the N800. That's a serious security and vulnerability assessment tool. We are not talking casual computing. We are not talking about simple surfing with an Internet tablet. We're talking serious security assessment technology...in your pocket.

Somehow I think we are going to see a lot of Linux addicts writing enterprise class applications that will take advantage of its large screen and the stability normally associated with Linux platforms. And all the more reason to get the previously announced N800 Skype client out there. He goes on:

I'm curious who will be the first company, industry, or vertical sector that will roll out N800s pre-configured with custom apps oriented to very specific use. Truckers who hit WiFi enabled truck stops for fuel, maps and such. Real estate agents and brokers. Insurance adjustors. There are some possibilities that are both broad and deep.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Perhaps the most demanded feature at last year's Skype Developer Conference was Call Transfer API's. We have seen some activity for Skype to Skype calls recently; however, information on activity related to calls originating or terminating via SkypeIn or SkypeOut (which require significantly more infrastructure) has been negligible.

Today Skype's April Developer newsletter issued a post by Morné van Dalen, Technical Project Manager on the Skype for Windows desktop team, responsible for developing the Call Transfer algorithms.

This feature has been one of the most requested/anticipated features for a long time, so it is important for us to make sure we get it right. We want to be able to offer a feature that not only matches functionality available on your landline or mobile, but be able to deliver an even better experience. That seems like a tall order, so how are we going to do it?

He goes on to outline Functionality, Transfer Methods, Which calls can be transferred and Integrating with existing functionality, including Voice Mail and Call Forwarding.

To clear up one item that is a bit confusing in all this. The Call Tranfer API Skype to Skype API has been available for Skype to Skype calls for a few months; its first implementation in a Skype client was in the recently released Skype for Mac 2.6 beta and it's used in Pamela 3.5. Separate development Infrastructure build out work is required for each of the API's modes liniking Skype to SkypeOut, etc.; the relevant API's modes will apparently become available over the next few weeks.

Note that call transfers to SkypeOut number and transfers of SkypeIn calls will only be available to Skype Pro customers. Hopefully it gets worked in for those of us on the Unlimited North American subscription plan as well. But Phil also asks in the Skype 3.2 Group Chat:

Phil Wolff | Skype Journal | Oakland, Calif |GMT -8 says: "I also think it's weird that you can't xfer calls to groups or skypeout unless you are in a pricing package. Why not just end the call if the account runs out of skype credits?

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Help Stamp Out Voice Mail with Newest iotum Talk-Now Beta

One of the great time wasters of our current communications infrastructure has to be voice mail. The calling party takes a couple of minutes to leave a voice mail; the receiving party needs even more time to recover, listen to, and manage the same voice mail. What if you could simply leave a text message that effectively said "Chris is trying to call you about {insert subject of call here}"? And with a single click you could return the call to Chris? Not to overlook that over 80% of business calls end up in voice mail and require an average of just over 4 attempts to complete a call.

With iotum's release today of a new version of their Talk-Now for Blackberry, they have delivered on a service that basically says "No Voice Mails!". (Well, that would be the dream but someone out there will always dream up a reason they have to leave a long explanation, diatribe, etc.) A key feature of this release is the auto-negotiation of when to have a conversation.

The Talk Now screen continues to be split into two groupings: Conversations and Talk-Now. However, Conversations itself has been split again into a "To Call List" and a "Waiting to Talk to Me" list. The former comprises parties whom you want/attempted to call but are, in some New Presence context, not immediately available. The latter comprises other parties, who are amongst all your Blackberry Contacts, who have attempted to call you. If the other party attempting to call you is also on Talk-Now they can now leave a subject line for the pending call. This is the new feature that is key to minimizing voice mail.

Continue reading "New Presence: Minimizing (Blackberry) Voice Mail" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | 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.

Continue reading "Getting Presence Right II - A More Comprehensive Perspective" »

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

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

SJ. What does eCommerce have to do with SkypeFind?

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

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

That's right.

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Sten Tamkivi on SkypeFind rollout" »

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

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

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

• New features for programmers:

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

• bugfix:

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

• Known issue:

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

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

Intuitive Desktop Sharing Application Bringing in Over 5,000 Installs Daily

WebDialogs has been offering beta versions of its Unyte desktop sharing application for Skype for over six months. However, with the release of Skype 3.0, Unyte has become one of the top downloads from the Extras Gallery resulting in over 5,000 installations daily. Simply doing a download is not sufficient for Unyte to count as an installation; Unyte requires that a user not only download and install the program but also initiate at least one session with a remote participant. Key to Unyte's success:

• Increased visibility and awareness through the Extras Gallery
• A positive initial user experience in not only downloading and installing but also in using the product.
• An intuitive user interface
• While a session host needs to download and install the 1MB client, participants in a desktop sharing session simply need any web browser (IE 6 or 7, Firefox, Opera) in any OS (Windows Mac, Linux) to view the shared desktop.

The screen above shows Unyte coming from Phil's desktop to my Firefox 2 browser. Note that there is one level of magnification to all viewing at the native resolution of the shared desktop (with panning).

The free version of Unyte provides basic desktop sharing for one-to-one sessions; it allows the user to get experience with its ease-of-installation and -operation. However, a paid subscription brings many additional features including:

Continue reading "Unyte - An Extras Gallery Success Story" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype for Mac 2.5 Goes Gold
Last day for 50% discount on North American Unlimited Plan
Skype for Business Updated

Skype for Mac 2.5 went Gold this morning; download it here. It brings Skype for Mac much closer to the feature set of Skype 3.0 for Windows. Key points:

• Send SMS messages to any mobile phone worldwide
• Host conference calls with up to nine other participants
• Takes full advantage of the built in webcams on recent Macs with upgraded video (one-to-one calls only); SightSpeed remains the market leader for multi-party video conference calls.
• Added a birthday reminder feature (which requires the Pamela Call Recorder for Skype for Windows users).

Also, if you are located in the U.S. or Canada note that today is the last day to get a 50% discount on the North American Unlimited Calling Plan. So while the link will remain live, expect those US$14.95 per year sunshine spots to disappear tonight.

Monday, Skype surpassed 9 million users online for the first time. Jaanus gets kudos for tracking this milestone.

Finally, last week Skype announced new features for Skype for Business; according to the press release this includes:

• easy installation on multiple computers within an enterprise
• via Skype Control Panel, allocate SkypeOut credits to individual users while providing a consolidated overview

Partner offerings include Unyte's Desktop Sharing (more information in a story later this week), Convenos web conference and collaboration service and the ACD Call-Centre offering from On-State. These are all available for trials via Skype's Extras Gallery.

We hope to have a more in-depth review of Skype for Business shortly. I have been constantly amazed at the number of Skype "business" stories that have come to us; we certainly would be willing to share your experience to provide more real life cases. Skype has issued a press release on one case.

Other bloggers' comments on Skype for Business:

• SaundersLog
• Skype for Business Isn't Taking Messages (thanks to Andy at VoIP Watch for the link)

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

To: Meg Whitman,
CEO, eBay

That was quite the quarterly report; lots of good news. Congratulations to the entire eBay team (including Skype, of course). But there is the Skype monetization issue to address. Following up on my other post Wednesday, I think I found one way to contribute to this while at CES. Bottom line: it can bring in more Skype registrations of eBay members (@ $0.38 Skype revenue per account per quarter), increase the fun and enthusiasm associated with participating in eBay auctions while minimizing desktop real estate and probably is the most virally intuitive way to justify the Skype acquisition.

In Wednesday's post I drew attention to the eBay Tab for Skype available for eBay U.S. members. It has significant usability issues and definitely results in a negative user experience. You mentioned in the analyst conference call Wednesday that priorities for 2007 include a focus on improving the user experience and experimenting with Skype to increase the fun and excitement associated with an auction. (BTW, Jordan Banks, Managing Director for Canada, at a presentation in Toronto last night, reinforced that theme when he talked about the importance of understanding user behavior and finding an action point within 2 clicks.)

One of your eBay and Skype developer partners, Germany-based PamConsult, has already developed a solution. (Their Pamela-Systems Call Recorder is ranked third in terms of Skype Extras Downloads.) In fact, their eBay Skype Tab has been licensed by eBay Germany and eBay France with other major eBay subsidiaries upcoming. Based on the slide show of screen shots below enhanced by an accompanying video and a discussion with one of the principles of PamConsult at CES, their eBay Tab for Skype:

• provides a positive user experience,
• allows an eBay member to carry out ALL their major eBay activities within a Skype Tab and
• basically elevates their eBay activity to the level of Skype IM activity within the Skype client both in terms of delivering real time information and creating a truly interactive experience
• has the potential to virally drive Skype subscriptions by eBay members.

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The user experience provided by this version of an eBay Skype Tab brings to the table:

Continue reading "eBay - Skype Synergy: The Missed Viral Opportunity - Post 2 of 2" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype 3.0 brings a few new terms to our VoIM glossary.

In this edition: extra, extras gallery, extras manager, plug-in manager, plug-in publishing studio, pxml, call transfer.

Extra. Skype's term for software or other products that work with Skype.

Extras Gallery. Skype's web directory of third party products. Skype is moving the Gallery from Paul's developer relations team to Skype's online store ecommerce team. 

Extras Manager. Skype 3.0 for Windows Beta client's view of a selected short list of extras. Extras in the Extras Manager may or may not be in the Gallery. Extras Manager extras may or may not be Skype Certified or even Skype Compatible. The Extras Manager is a retail zone, designed to sell stuff, and some vendors pay fees and commissions to Skype.

Plug-In Manager. New software that comes with Skype. It runs in the background as skypePM.exe. Programmers talk to it through an API. Users talk to it through the Extras Manager. At the moment, there is no user option for not automatically launching the Extras Manager or the Plug-In Manager.

Plug-In Publishing Studio. A tool that helps programmers package their extras for the Plug-In Manager. If you have C++ or java code laying around, the studio wraps it up properly with a "pxml" file for distribution by Skype. Not available for public download.

PXML. The Plug-In Manager reads this XML file format (example) to learn which text and pictures to show. After developers use the Plug-In Studio to describe their products, Skype writes the entries into a bigger pxml file with everything you'll see in the Manager. Skype is batch updating the clients weekly with a new pxml file, refreshing what Skypers see and where.

Call Transfer. This 3.0 feature is only available to programmers at the moment. This lets programs redirect a call to another Skype user or to a pool of Skype users. If to a pool, the first one to pick up gets the call. When a third party picks up the call, the transferrer is dropped from the call.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype 3.0 Dev Notes including one element I advocated and requested many times over. Call Transfer is finally here in the Skype 3.0 API. That's a big deal and will grow Skype's appeal with developers who now have all sorts of call routing options. At a meeting in Estonia just over a year ago (that happened as the eBay sale was going through) a group long term adovacates put the case for it. I'm very pleased to see it has finally happened. I'll have some other comments on Skype 3.0 although I want to share them in a broader competitive context. My buddies at Skype Journal are writing plenty on the new public chat feature. See Phil and Jim.

See Alec's comment. Skype Dev Zone (lots re extras), Antoine's Dev blog:

Skype 3.0 introduces the long-awaited interface to enable call transfer. Call transfer is being phased in over two releases, and won't be exposed to users until the 3.5 release. The reason for this phased release is to ensure substantial penetration of Skype 3.0 among users, because call transfer requires that all parties are running Skype 3.0 or higher. Our goal is to enable you to start building and testing great new apps now which will be ready to blow peoples' minds away when we release 3.5 next year. No more playing catch up with the client!

Don't miss this TechCrunch post. Important to understanding the changing competitive landscape. TechCrunch UK » Blog Archive » Skype 3.0 (beta) starts the communication platform wars [with the release of Skype4Java,  Skype4COM, and XPCOM wrappers].

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As mentioned elsewhere I have had significant exposure to a variety of phones that have been designed to work with Skype, either as the primary purpose of the device (Skype WiFi phones, Skype Cordless phones) or as an application within a more versatile mobile "personal assistant" platform (Windows Mobile platforms and, by year end, Symbian platforms such as the Nokia N-series). In addition I have now had the opportunity to work with a few wireless phones made by Nokia and Research in Motion (Blackberry). A few comments that could help Skype ecosystem product managers going forward:

Battery life: many of these phones have a battery life of four to six hours idle time. Probably best to license RIM's Blackberry power management -- I can get four to five days of idle time on my 8700. Any device that will have a hope of broad market acceptance should have at least two days idle time.

DTMF tones: This is a fairly basic and widely deployed feature of the Voice 1.0 phone infrastructure; yet I am constantly amazed at the cavalier approach taken to making sure "TouchTones" work with any Skype client, whether a softphone or a hardware device. Here are some of my experiences:

• Skype itself would not work reliably with DTMF tones prior to version 2.0; that issue has been resolved at this point (within the Skype client's "Dial" tab).
• The Skype WiFi phones do not support DTMF; therefore they limit the usefulness of SkypeOut when calling businesses that use IVR systems or other services, such as voice mail systems, that require a DTMF response. I have also experienced USB phones with the same issue.
• At the other extreme the RTX Dualphone and VoIPvoice Cyberphones do provide the appropriate support; the Sony Mylo aslo supports DTMF but you have to remember to put their unique keyboard in NUM mode to enter the tones.

Chat: I view Skype as having two primary features: Instant Messaging (presence and chat) and Voice. For USB phones, the IM activity remains on the host PC; however, for PC-independent devices there are issues:

Continue reading "Memo to Skype Phone Product Managers" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

TalkPlus today announced plans to revolutionize the way people use mobile phones by offering new and innovative Voice 2.0 calling services that work with existing mobile phones globally. Under development for more than two years, TalkPlus' patent-pending technology will provide customers a wide array of new and advanced calling services previously unavailable from mobile phone carriers.

First Offering: A Second Number That Works on Your Mobile Phone

With an additional phone number from TalkPlus, mobile users can now take advantage of having two numbers on their mobile phone. This additional mobile number is fully functional and unique; it works just like a mobile number issued by a carrier. By having a separate number to both place and receive calls on the same phone, subscribers get greater convenience and flexibility, as well as the benefit of an additional layer of privacy. With a second number, TalkPlus subscribers will be able to easily manage personal and work lives, while carrying only one mobile phone.

Subscribers will also benefit from an online management center, where they can easily control the TalkPlus Number's advanced call screening, voicemail, and contact management features.

Incorporated into the "Second Number" feature set will be an independent voice mailbox, a rules based engine for call management, bidirectional calling (in and out) such that a user can, say, separate her personal and business life, while using one phone handset with one carrier account. If you want to apply these management features to your original (well publicized) mobile number, you can port that number to the TalkPlus service and have a new (probably unpublicized) number applied to your basic carrier service.

But the calling support services go beyond capturing voice mail. Here are a couple of  examples:

Continue reading "TalkPlus - Voice 2.0 of Mobile and The Skype Story" »

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

Last week's Voice 2.0 Conference in Ottawa exposed examples across the entire range of infrastructure and services that lead to voice-related applications. Martin Geddes led off with a keynote asking What's telephone for? What's the unmet user need? Where's the money and What's next? Sam Aparicio of  Angel.com provides an excellent commentary on Martin's presentation ending with Martin's economic model for Voice 2.0 telephony:

• Martin talks about an inversion of the model. While most of the money was being made once the call was connected, now most of the money is to be made pre- and post-talk.
• Before talking you have devices, connectivity, privacy, presence, availability, directory and integration
• After the call, social networking.
• Google managed to create $400B of market value by exploiting digital social gestures around hyperlinks, but Telcos still fail to see how CDRs are a goldmine.
• Some of the growth areas: B2C (I'm soo glad he mentioned this...), C2B -- whenever you cross the trust of a social boundary. An example: In Finland, some people organized a grassroots, non-official Voice Idol type system, creating tons of value for the carriers without much of their involvement.
• Some examples of new thinking: considering a cell phone as a retail outlet you get to carry with you wherever you go.
• In the end, whoever controls the context in which conversations happen. (Following the Starbucks model, where they get to capture the bulk of the value generated by the chain starting at the bush of Juan Valdes). He mentioned how, in the future, when in a hotel, options for room service will be in a buddy list.

Continue reading "Voice 2.0 - It's About Building Unique Communities" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(The second of three posts on the newly released Skylook 2.0.)

Two legacy features carried over from earlier versions are the Skylook Answering Machine and Skylook Recording, both of which recorded Skype voice mail messages and calls as MP3 files.. Building on the experience with handling audio in developing these features, Skylook 2 has been enhanced such that voice mails can be incorporated into business processes for timely follow up and retrieval while Skylook Recording is an ideal solution for recording podcasts. The new features include:

• Recording in multiple formats: MP3, PCM, etc.
• Record the caller side or both sides of the call
• Split the recording of each side of a call as "raw PCM audio" into separate WAV files; this facilitates later editing of recordings as podcasts.
• Store audio files either in Outlook or in any Windows folder. This allows call centers to store files in Public folders accessible to all members of a call center
• In the Skylook Call Monitor window you can also store (free text) Notes to associate with the recording. These notes, which can be made either during or after the call, become searchable tags that facilitate later retrieval of audio files.
• When deploying Skype Answering Machine a voice mail (optionally from designated callers) can be automatically forwarded to any designated email address as an attached MP3 file.

As with earlier versions of Skylook all Answering Machine and Recording activity is archived within Outlook.

If you are looking for more than simply receiving voice mail and want to not only have several recording options but also have all your call activity archived for later search retrieval, Skylook 2 offers some interesting value-add features, especially for call centers, customer support operations and podcast producers.

First Post: Skylook 2 - Building Business Processes Around Skype

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

Marcelo Rodriguez rounded up five products that connect Skype and SIP products in his post, Is a Skype-SIP Peace At Hand? 

• VoSky Exchange
• Skype2PBX
• Uplink
• ChanSkype 
• Pika Connect for Skype

We all want interop, and these products are gaining loyal followings. They build audio pipes between SIP and Skype voice callers. We've been calling these Level Three Skype integration in our Skype Journal Connectivity Maturity Model. 

Skype Journal Connectivity Maturity Model

Level 0. No connection.
What's VoIP? What's Skype?

Level 1. Skype indifferent.
Devices doing nothing but input or output like the most basic of USB phones. On the software side, the only software is Skype.

Level 2. Skype aware.
Configurations are Skype-aware or Skype-smart devices, like the Kensington Vo300, the YapperNut YapperBox.

Level 3. Skype conversant.
Level 2, plus audio pipes between apps, especially across the SIP barrier. You call with your SIP phone, something happens in between, and my Skype phone answers.

The move from Skype to SIP at Level 3 costs you all the benefits of rich conversation. You lose:

• Availability and geopresence
• Mood messages
• Caller authentication
• Access to caller profiles
• Launching text chat or video in the same call
• File transfer and folder sharing
• Voice messaging
• Access to Skype voicemail
• Skype multichat and conferencing
• Broadband audio quality 
• End-to-end encryption
• Chat/call permalinks 
  (e.g. skype:?chat&id=%23leedryburgh%2F%24evanwolf%3Bd5b446f89da627a3)

Level 4. Skype equivalent.
Level 3, plus restoring most of the missing elements. 

Does this model work for you? What's Level 5? What do you call it when the other system has capabilities beyond or different from Skype and you can't translate them?  

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Those handsome guys at the big CES booth in the Skype Journal banner are from a startup called YapperNut. I coulda sworn I wrote them up last January but a quick search didn't pull it up. Fresh out of Stanford engineering (some of them not even out of school), they started YapperNut to create products for Skype.

First came Amy, one of the first answering machines for Skype, and still a very nice and free program. It was the first add-in to screen incoming calls based on the caller's social proximity, leading Iotum by more than a year. Amy offered voice messaging before Skype's. Skype still doesn't have scheduled voice transmissions or office hours that direct calls to voice mail when you're sleeping, a feature Skype still doesn't have.

Continue reading "YapperMouse with Amy for Skype" »

Posted by Phil Wolff at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier this week Skype announced a new Skype 2.6 beta release for Windows.  Two new features:

• Skypecasts controls are now directly available within the Skype client
• A bandwidth indicator is enabled via the Advanced Options (Tools|Optiions|Advanced)

However, the most interesting for partners is this line in the announcement:

For developers, there's a feature here that has been requested a lot: you can turn off the visible Skype UI through the API now. For more info on this, please stay tuned for updates on our developer zone and the developer blog.

As Alec Saunders points out, this is Silent Skype where developers can turn off the visible Skype UI.. Is this on the path to the long requested Naked Skype where developers can build around a core Skype engine?

Skype's Developer Program has launched a developer newsletter. But it begs the question as to why it is simply a traditional web page as opposed to being published with RSS feeds for those who want automatic updates and all the other benefits of RSS use.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last weekend Netralia launched Version 2 of Skylook - a tool that links Skype to that ubiquitous contact management and email tool, Outlook 2000/XP/2003, and extends facets of the Skype experience to your mobile phone. In an interview with Jeremy Hague, Skylook's CEO, I learned that Skylook is rapidly becoming a key business tool for that 30% of users who use Skype in business. Key points include:

• over 60% (and rising) of Skylook licenses are known to be for business use;
• its major appeal is to hard core Skype users
• its business users have as many as 15,000 contacts in Outlook
• its US$99.95 per year per user price tag includes a 12 months 24 hour response time support warranty as well as all updates during this period

While working with Outlook, Skylook 2 also introduces audio technology for several key features, incorporates enhanced SMS messaging into Skype's Instant Messaging features and uses Skype's API's to forward voice and email messages to your mobile phone. In the image above I have "wrapped' the toolbar to show all its features. Skylook 2 offers six key functions:

• Communicate with Outlook Contacts: for instance, you can even send an SMS message to any Outlook contact, including those who do not have a Skype account, provided they have a mobile phone
• Record Skype calls (with several new features in Skylook 2.0 - the subject of a separate post - ideal for creating podcasts using Skype)
• Alerts and Forwarding: a totally new feature that will be the subject of a separate post.
• Answering Machine provides full voice mail functionality
• Archiving and organizing all your communications: emails, IM sessions, SMS activity and voice mails.
• Synchronize your Outlook and Skype Contacts.

Skylook has a more detailed outline of its functions on its web site along with links to examples of how several features work.

Continue reading "Skylook 2 - Building Business Processes Around Skype" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

by: Julian Bond.

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "The Basic Skype Protocol Issues" »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Multi-Link Inc.: Providing a Seamless Telephone Experience" »

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading "Some public Skype events and why Skype should embed calendaring" »

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

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

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

This album is powered by BubbleShare

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

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

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

New features:

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

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

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

I just spent twenty minutes interviewing Lenn Pryor, Director of Skype's Developer Platform Business Unit. Lenn joined Skype just over a year ago; that year has provided plenty of opportunity to not only to assess the potential but also to make the changes required to have a successful Developer Platform business.

Skype Journal: Lenn, what is your vision for the Developer Programs going forward?

Lenn: Let's start by going back a year or so. The Skype API's were launched just over 12 months ago; we spent the first year laying the foundation. We introduced several basic support services including the website developer zone, forums, a developer weblog, and support documentation all at the same time as building a developer community. It was a learning experience for both our team and our developer partners; we learned a lot about what is required to support hardware, software and services built around Skype. We identified two key needs:

• on the product side: better and more API's; we have made several announcements at this meeting
• and on the business side: raise awareness for the new applications offered by our developer partners. The Plugin Framework announced at the DevCon (available in Q4-06) will help to address this issue by:
  • building applications that have a tighter fit within the Skype User Interface
  • facilitate both awareness and buying logistics associated with monetizing the applications.

Continue reading "Skype API Developer Program: View from the Top" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Session "Servers and Plug-Ins: The Future of the API", led by Mat Taylor, Skype's API Product Manager, provided the Skype API roadmap for the API's over the next six to nine months. (Click the link above for the slideshow.)

Mat started out by reviewing the current status and highlighting what he felt were the top enhancement requests, based on feedback from the Skype developer community. He then went on to release the schedule for release of various new features:

• June/July 06: New Extras Gallery, Skype 4 Java, Skypecasts API, SMS API, Skype 4 Web
• Q3, 2006: Voice Access
• Q4: 2006: Call Transfer API (Skype2Skype only); Personalisation API and Plugin Framework.
• Early 2007: Call Transfer API (Skype2 PSTN)

Continue reading "Skype DevCon Session: The Future of the API" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The slideshows that accompany many of the presentations are available at the eBay DevCon website.  They have been added to the individual items on the "Schedule" pages. For instance click here for Saturday's sessions.

(Note: there are no slideshows available for activities such as the Skype Lab sessions or the Web 2.0 Community session as there were no slides used for the session.)

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

eBay Live kicked off this morning with presentations by senior executives of eBay, PayPal and Skype. This is an event that focuses on the key role that developer partners play in the growth of the various eBay properties. A more complete report will follow shortly; however, a couple of points to quickly note:

In his presentation on the overall eBay ecosystem architecture Michael van Swaajj, Chief Strategy Officer, concluded with this slide. Within the context of eBay's vision of providing a "Trusted Ecosystem" infrastructure, it highlights the architecture support provided for partner innovation in building third party applications.

Lenn Pryor, Director of Skype's Developer Platform Business Unit, provided a ten minute overview of the Skype-enabled opportunities for third party developers along with the support being provided going forward. Lenn provided this slide describing the support immediately forthcoming for the Skype developer community:

The Call Transfer API is their most requested feature but still needs some time to complete its development. Expect it to come out in two phases: call transfer to other Skype users by year end followed by call transfer to the PSTN early next year. The Client UI plug-in framework will facilitate integration of third party services directly into the Skype UI.

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

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With almost two months experience as a  Skype Journal Associate Editor, it has become apparent that a Skype Journal editor could become a test technician for every product with aspirations to work with Skype.  However, time is a limitation and one needs to somehow define that gray border between evaluating a product and providing consulting on product management issues such as user interfaces, installation and configuration conflicts, Skype API integration and even Skype Certification. Rather than define a boundary here are the priorities I see in triaging our selection of products to evaluate:

1. Is the product or service Skype Certified? If so, it has certainly passed one set of criteria that are becoming tighter as Skype develops experience with its partner program. Most of the items below are included in the Skype Certified criteria (SC) but I repeat them for emphasis.
2. (SC) Does it include User Manuals, either in print or online? At least have them available for assisting the installation and operation. (Yes, I actually read them to assist with the objectivity of my assessment of a product when I run into issues.)

Continue reading "Setting Standards for Evaluation" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was starting my evaluation of the beta PhoneGnome to Skype feature today when I found that the GnomeLink client is really the (not yet rebranded - it's beta!) Uplink SIP to Skype Adapter available free from Australian-based NCH Swift Sound. If you look at their Typical Applications, it appears to be targeted more at the SME PBX market as an interconnect from the PBX into Skype. From their website:

The SIP protocol has become the industry standard for VoIP. Thousands of telephone companies, IP phone manufacturers and virtual IP based PBX systems use this protocol to connect calls. The problem is the proprietary IP phone 'Skype' has an almost cult following in the youth market and sometimes the call rates for SkypeOut are discounted. This software lets you connect calls between the two systems.

Then I found a post from Michigan Telephone Blog that speculates about its potential as a Skype to Asterisk@Home interface:

Now, I haven't tried to do it, but maybe you could set this up on a Windows box along with a compatible softphone and use that as an interface between Asterisk and Skype.

I'm not the geek techie type but would be interested to hear Comments about its potential in the ongoing Skype vs SIP debate. (As would the people at Michigan Telephone Blog -- comment there or here.)

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Received a private email this morning with the above subject line but felt it was a question worth a full post as I am sure it is a more universal one:

Hi,

It seems silly that you have to have a computer running in order to use Skype even with your regular phone.  I've done some searches for Skype appliance and have not come up with much... Do you think the release of a Skype appliance that looks like a router is eminent? [ed. - imminent] If not, have you heard of any solutions like a Linux server that is relatively inexpensive that could be provisioned with that? I like Skype, but I just hate to have to have it depend on my computer to be up and running.

Thanks... Mika

"The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good." -Ann Landers-

Good question, Mika. Ideally you are looking for Skype service with the user interface of a traditional phone set. It certainly is one aspect I look for in evaluating hardware; however we need to also keep in mind that Skype goes beyond simply voice to bring along many additional features. Presence, chat, file transfer, voice mail, SMS messaging and other features enhance, facilitate and support the voice conversation.  The challenge is to have a familiar device (telephone type handset) but have access to these features and other benefits of Skype.

Continue reading ""Email Subject: Any Thought on Skype Appliances"" »

Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

by Skypeteer Hans Blaauw

[Ed. Hans responds to my Wishlist: Skype promotions for FIFA World Cup with this update to his free Skype plug-in.]

FIRST DOWNLOAD MOOD-O-MATIC

I had a good Mood so I produced a nice Moodie for my old Mood-O-Matic.

I know there are a lot of Worldcup fans so this Moodie will fill the Skype Mood with either your team news or tournament news.

The URL of the moodie is:

http://www.skypeteer.com/moodies/worldcup.asp?country=

If you don't fill in a country it will show tournament news.

To get a countrycode goto Yahoo Worldcup news and hover over the orange XML icon of your Team. Write down the team code (for my team this is NED) and append it to the above URL. So my URL looks like:

http://www.skypeteer.com/moodies/worldcup.asp?country=NED

In Mood-O-Matic select 'run a script', click 'configure' and paste your URL. Set an interval and Voila.

Technorati Tags: worldcup news, fifa world cup, tournament news, team news, news team, technorati, url, skype, voila, moodies, world cup tournament, asp, countrycode, http, goto yahoo, append, hover

Continue reading "Mood-O-Matic and Worldcup 2006 news" »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 08:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Jan Geirnaert blogged his Skype broadcast software. Send one chat message to five consecutive Skype contacts, you pick the starting contact. They are working on an unlimited contact version that will reach all your contacts, selected ones, or all members of one of your Skype contact groups. Jan's design hobbles it to minimize SPIM, spam over IM. For example, he could easily have added a crawler to scour Skype IDs from the Internet, add them as buddies, and then send a commercial message to a million strangers. More on defensive software design this week.

Julian Bond's program extracts his contacts' locations, converts them into geodata, and passes them to a database which puts them on Google Maps. Data visualization becomes more important when you manage your thousands of contacts from Ecademy, the alumni association, your friends from the pub, ex-girlfriends (OK, that's a short list for me), colleagues at work, etc. As we migrate Internet use to mobiles, we will be managing our day bouncing our contacts' physical and social proximity against our daily goals and social contexts.

They're both alpha stage prototypes, but they illustrate some of what Skype's APIs make possible. They could lead to new product categories, especially in the workplace or any other sphere calling for strong communication, coordination and collaboration. Phreak on!

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

God what a hangover, damn but these Vegas eBay geeks can party. How the heck am I supposed to post updates to SkypeJournal.com with my brain oozing out my ears? We're independent, so I have to keep those ears open, even when they're ringing. We've been writing for geeks, suits, and users since Skype launched. We break hard news, review (and sometimes trash) Skype compatible software and hardware, and describe how the Skype model affects industry, society, and software design. We are flabbergasted daily by the amazing things people do with Skype and the Skype platform. So we help: Our ebook guide to Skype's plug-in architecture was downloaded 250 thousand times in 2005. Our consultants train developers, test prototypes, leads workshops for product managers, and map out branding and strategy for this new era. Skype me at evanwolf or call me at +1-646-461-6123 with tips, gripes, or -- do I smell coffee?

Pleased to be a media sponsor and promote the event. They expect 800 to 1000 programmers, most new to the Skype platform. I have high hopes this will be a more serious geekfest compared to last year's Skype developer marketing parties. Do you think all of Skype's product managers and at least some of Skype's serious engineers from Tallinn and around the world will be there to share and hear and inspire this growing and heavily invested community?

So far, Skype staff on the schedule include: Skype president Rajiv Dutta, Toolbars pm Peter Kalmström, API pm Mat Taylor, developer Indrek Mandre, evangelist Lester Madden, certification manager Tiit Paananen

What take-aways and deliverables do you want from 72 hours with Skype engineers and product managers?

Eight Skype-specific sessions (roughly in chronological order):

Continue reading "Skype Journal sponsors the 2006 eBay DevCon" »

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

SkypeAttendant is a test program that demonstrates a simple IVR system for Skype. Like many companies you can request an extention and then be directed there. This demo is important for it shows the power that will exist on your desktop when Skype finally enables "call transfer" in the API. It's a wait-listed API item. We still don't know when it is coming. When it does, it is a game changer.

SkypeAttendant is a bilingual(Chinese/English) auto-attendant system for Skype. It can be used in a company, or just for a group of friends that would like to share a common representative skype account.

A demo scenario (skype:delta.com.tw?call) is listed below.

From this example, you call to delta.com.tw, and would like to speak to a person whose Skype account name is “Skype sound test”.

System: “Welcome to SkypeAttendant system. 歡迎使用自動總機.
國語請按1, for English service please press 2.” (if you do not press any key, the system default is Chinese)
Caller: (press 2) System: “Please say the name that you want to speak to.”
Caller: “Skype sound test”
System: “Skype sound test. OK, cancel, retry?”
Caller: “OK”
System: “Transferring call, wait a moment please.”
(connecting to echo123… connected)
echo123:”Hello, welcome to Skype call testing service…”Skype Attendant

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

What have people typed in their Skype mood indicator lately? Ask Moodgeist:

Anchor Porter vs. Guiness 3 hours, 29 minutes ago
eBay research labs in San Jose 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
totally board 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
How can my speech be free is yours is so expensive? 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
Mehed, aitab tööst ! Hakkame laulma ! 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
Parik 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
WFH 17 hours, 36 minutes ago
- Tallinn 17 hours, 37 minutes ago
اسمك في هو...
17 hours, 37 minutes ago
spring is comming 17 hours, 37 minutes ago

[off topic: I will take up the stout vs. porter debate any time. -phil]

Popular keywords: London, Tallinn, your, home, Skype, back, vacation, March

Even though nobody discusses Skype in the same breath as MySpace or LinkedIn, it really is a large and dynamic social network. I love that the guys are probing into its human nature.

Maybe it's time for Skype to adopt Google's R&D policy that mandates 10% of every developer's time (around four hours per week) be spent on personal projects. Innovation booster. The other good practice is to set up a laboratory site for hosting and featuring interesting projects that aren't ready for the everyday user. Nurture the team's adventurous spirit, and reap the benefits in-house.

The Moodgeist blog, the restful API and feeds.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

David Greenfield wrote a piece for CMP's Networking Pipeline called "The Six Gotchas Of Skype For Business" in response to Skype's new small business marketing buzz and their renaming of the Skype for Business Control Panel.

I won't say that Skype is a fully formed enterprise system. It isn't. It's raw, cheap, different, and disruptive. And Skype is merely the first of its kind to take off. If your business doesn't have pilot Skype deployments in place, you're missing out on key learnings. It is so much more conducive to conversation than legacy phones that you'll be discovering new relationships with customers, reinforcement of your informal organization structures, and fewer mistakes due to poor communication. You're asking the wrong question, David. Not "Why?", but "How soon?"

From his column with my comments.

But Skype for Business still comes up short in six areas:

1. Skype for Business still doesn't provide centralized reporting, so business won't be able to monitor how users spend Skype credits. There's no way to monitor or prevent, for example, users from calling 900 numbers and the like.

You can add features to Skype by having other programs talk to it through its published programming specifications. The API knows just about everything the Skype client does, in more granular detail than most phone systems. The data is there for you if you want to get it.

Skype is like your telephone station, a phone and dialer, not a multiphone telephone switch. Expecting multi-user reporting and analysis from a single-user device is like expecting a car to report a fleet's gas mileage.

To my knowledge, you cannot call 900 numbers with Skype; it can't pay extra bills and tariffs. So Mr. Greenfield is factually incorrect now, but may change in the future. In fact, as Conversation 3.0 picks up more transactional power, like exchanging money for talk or money for file exchanges, you may expect people to pay for services and even eBay items from their Skype accounts.

2. Skype for Business doesn't provide hunt groups where multiple extensions ring when a phone is dialed. Skype was expected to deliver that function in this release.

Other companies are meeting this need. Third party solutions integrate Skype with telephone switches (PBXs) and offer hunting, among other features. For example, Zipcom's SkypePBX

3. Call transfers still aren't provided.

Forwarding, yes. Transfers, no.

Not much engineering effort to leap from forwarding to transfer. First, the forwarder needs to leave the call completely, and the other parties just see each other. Second, this must be allowed before accepting a call, when your Skype is ringing, and during a call. Third, it should work for conference calls too. Fourth, by adding forwarding to the programmers' API, you enable distributed, emergent call centers.

I agree this is an important feature for end users and the workplace. Even more, it opens up Skype We'll see when Skype pushes this into the development queue.

Must you wait for call transfer before adopting Skype at all? That's up to you. It's probably not stopping your competition.

4. There's no attendant [software that helps callers find and reach the right extension] or IVR function [interactive voice response, providing menus that interact with business applications like online banking], which would redirect calls to other Skype numbers based on user selection. Many IVR functions can be provided through a Web page, but that won't help users who might be calling in from the PSTN.

Again, confusing Apples for Oranges and missing the point. It's not the phone's job to do those things. Skype has a partner program to help companies build voice applications. The first automated attendant and IVR products shipping today from third parties.

5. Calls are still encrypted, preventing businesses from ensuring that employees aren't passing information that might violate regulatory restrictions.

To the contrary, encryption, where applied, is an asset appreciated by customers. This higher level of security protect clients from third party eavesdropping, more than other VoIP or POTS solutions. If you want to assure information integrity, start right there.

If you're relying on snooping to prevent bad behavior, then you're in trouble. Invasive systems never prevent bad behavior, just catch it. There's a higher ROI from treating staff well, and have great people, processes, training, and morale.

Mr. Greenfield misstates things again. Calls are only encrypted if they are PC-to-PC and Skype-to-Skype. So SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls aren't encrypted. If you want recordings of calls, and it is legal for you to do so, then there is plenty of off the shelf software to let you do that. (Skype Journal's own guide to the Skype Plug-In Architecture will step a programmer how to write their own answering machine in an hour.) If you want a supervisor to listen during a call, use Skype conferencing; it works.

6. Forget about E-911 compliance. There is none.

Skype isn't subject to E-911 regulations, or similar rules in the hundreds of other countries where people use Skype. In the future, Skype may partner with e911 providers so customers may opt-in, the way Vonage customers do right now. But for now, your phone switch should be routing emergency calls through your local phone system to your local emergency response service. (P.S. If you're worried about 911 compliance, try auditing your mobile carriers.)

Without those capabilities, don't expect Skype for Business to replace your telephony system any time soon.

Bottom line: Assess Skype on its own merits and you'll be pleasantly surprised. Can your phone system work from another location an hour after your building burns down? Does it help your workforce signal presence, saving time? Does it offer your partners and colleagues strong encryption against corporate spies and identity thieves? Will your phone system make video and audio conferencing so easy that everyone does it?

Tags: e911, 911, strategy, skype, skypejournal, callcenter, pbx, asterisk

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm a fan of the Get Human consumer movement. You should be too. Should computers answer your company's support lines? Get Human advocates returning the choice about whether to talk to a person or a machine back in the hands of your customers. Power is more decentralized in our support economy and enterprise telecom planners can help call centers ride that wave.

One way is to support the many channels people use (prefer, choose) to converse. Skype is one way. Are you able to take customer sales and customer service calls from Skype users?

A quick FAQ:

Q. Are enough people using consumer VoIP to make this worthwhile?

A. About 70 million Skypers use Skype for voice calls, according to the company. This number is concentrated among those with access to broadband and all of them are regular computer users. Watch this number grow in the United States and Canada as eBay introduces Skype to its largely North American customers. (19 billion minutes served)

Q. I have my phone system integrated with call center software. Will Skype work with it?

A. I haven't looked at your system, but there's every reason to believe it could. Skype's desktop API tells programmers how to do things like tell Skype to answer a call, make one, record it, lookup a contact, pass caller-ID to another program, etc. Because Skype is multimodal (chat, voice, video) Skype has excellent logs.

Q. We're a financial institution and are nuts about security. Can we Skype?

A. So is Skype, and every conversation is encrypted end-to-end. That's more than you can say for regular phones, email, fax or any other system you use now to talk with your customers. And it is automatic, in the background, and painless.  

Q. Can many people answer one Skype number?

A. Yes, but it can be a little tricky. Until Skype introduces their business products you'll have to engineer to make it work.  

Q. Skypeskypeskypeskype. What about all the other products out there?

A. Skype is not just best of breed today, it is the one with the largest number of voice users (the driving factor) and the most sophisticated tools for programmers (the necessary condition). That may change: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and AOL have strong product teams working hard to catch up. Today, you can't beat Skype for customer-facing applications.   

Q. How will people know to call our Skype number? 

A. Tell them.

• People can click from your web page into a call to the right department using Skype html tags and web buttons.
• Describe your customer service office in your Skype profile, so people find you when they search the Skype directory.
• Put your customer service Skype name in your marketing collateral just the way you added email addresses and web sites in the 1990s.
• Create a Skype download page for your customers, supporting their ability to talk with you and each other. 

Millions of small business people use Skype to stay in touch with customers, clients, colleagues, and other partners. It's simple.

Bigger teams will want the corporate IT touch. Professional call center integration will include identity management, enterprise directory integration, access control, presence syndication, user provisioning, automation of SkypeIn and SkypeOut credit procurement, call accounting and log analysis, software configuration, not to mention validating new capabilities against your corporate HR, security, privacy, and other compliance policies.

Despite the potential complexities, I've seen a team deploy a SkypeIn number, roll-out the software, write simple procedures, and staff it 24/7 in one day. Your milage may vary.

That the Conversation 3.0 and the Get Human revolutions are happening at the same time is no coincidence. Both empower individuals to take control of their conversations, their relationships, their time, and their money. I can't think of a better time to step up to a pilot project.   

Note: this is an area where the Skype Journal consulting team provides professional services. The tone came off as more salesy and evangelical than I intended, but it's on point, I think.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's three Skype products that aim to enhance your Skypeing experience that leaves me questioning exactly what I'm buying with Skype Certified. The three products are the VoSky Chatterbox, Jawbone Headset and the Motorola Wireless Interenet Calling Kit. Each provide a different angle on bettering the standard Skyper's headset and as you might expect each has their pro's and con's.

VoSky Chatterbox.

This simple USB device provides an easily portable plug and play speakerphone for Skype. It's simple to use and requires no additional software to be loaded. It has a volume and mute button on top and works probably as expected, as a low cost speakerphone. I'd liken it to the solution we had as kids when we could finally plug in a speakerphone box between the old phone and the whole family sat around. In principle great, in practice it left something to be desired. The Chatterbox is a little like this. It works. It's also no substitute for a decent headset. The caller on the other end of the line will know and possibly complain. Handsfree solutions curently work better with a good set of speakers and a proper stand mic. Locate them correctly and the caller won't get a any feedback. Many laptops work as good as the Chatterbox. If you feel the need try it. Just don't expect it to be a Polycom and ready for the office. For kids it may be more robust than a headset - read youngsters talking to Grandma.

Continue reading "Three Skype Products - Three ?'s" »

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 08:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

First, the product is in beta testing. I like it, but it will be a different product when it comes out-of-beta and adds online payments to the user experience. How promptly will the alterred product be retested? How extensive is Skype's still new software testing? Who signs off on it? Was this waived for WebDialogs to be in time for CES?

WebDialogs aside, Skype's certification results remain a black hole; transparency is called for. To start: create a web page for every product certified, listing the tests passed and describing the specific release/version of the product tested, and provide a facility for voting/rating and other customer feedback on products. Then list all those certificates on a master page. This will help consumers verify product certification, promote recertification, clarify what specific certs stand for, and deter pirates.

Second, Skype made a big stink in the recent past about third party software changing Skype's GUI. They threatened small developers who'd added "V for video" or other buttons, bringing in lawyers before even Skyping these registered Skype partners. (EULA section 3.3.2: "You will not remove, overtake, hide or otherwise make the UI inaccessible for end users".) Skype Journal repeatedly called for UI APIs, but Skype hasn't published any. Unyte adds a "Share" button to Skype's main navigation bar. And Skype certified the product. Either:

1. Skype bizdev gave Unyte a pass on the terms of service,
2. Skype testing failed to notice a whopping big change to the UI,
3. Skype has a secret, for-very-special-friends GUI API that they shared with Unyte but keep hidden from the rest of the Skype developer ecosystem.

I suspect (1) and (3), both of which are piss poor business practices.

Skype's future depends less on blockbuster software alliances and more on creating a trusted environment where tens of thousands of firms and programmers know they are treated well, fairly, and consistently. I'm not picking on WebDialogs here; they did no wrong. Skype, on the other hand, should decide whether bizdev deadlines and public validation are worth breaking faith with an entire community of developers.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Microsoft demoed Windows Live Messenger (WLM) beta on the show floor. (Snapshots coming soon.) Better looking than MSN Messenger 7.5 (lots of cutesy user interface removed, panes better organized) but it's a small point. One rep claimed the Messenger Beta is better than Skype because:

• audio quality ("we played with the codecs"),
  
• integration of identity and contacts across the Live family (hotmail/live mail),
  
• third party apps delivered through the system, and
  
• having more users (about 200 million) than anyone else.

When at Sprint, myself and David used to run around doing exec presentations on how the Sprint diamond logo (RIP) should be a trust mark, and that Sprint could add value as an intermediaryby making people’s (wireless) web browsing experience safer and more convenient. We even filed a patent, whereby the operator logo on the handset would light up when showing operator-provided interstitial advice pages.

Anyhow, we used to get a lot of blank stares, and telcoheads looking at us like we’d just come back from vacation on planet Zog.

I don’t think we’d get that reaction now. Just take a look at this:

This is the fire-up splash page from their new anti-phishing plug-in for Firefox. Google is the Web’s new trustmark. Can you imagine any telco positioning themselves in this way? Every intermediation of a telco is regarded with distrust and suspicion. Nobody sees a telco trademark and thinks (however naively): “these guys are on our side”. Google have to follow “don’t be evil”, not because they’re nice, but because the privacy effects of theis business give them no choice.

PS - Notice Amazon/Alexa’s new service where they are offering web crawling APIs (for a fee)? We argued that Sprint was in a good position to become the champion of commercial web services APIs, where people assembled applications from lots of component services, but where money was also due to flow between those parties. The idea was to leverage Sprint’s natural advantage in providing an in-house selection of web services (messaging, profile, identity, etc.) into a wider sphere. Needless to say, those ideas got killed, and Sprint remains a capital-bound midwestern telco, and not a cash-machine virtual enterprise like Google.

Martin peers suspiciously from his Telepocalypse weblog.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 04:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My parents are kleptomaniacs. Just don’t tell them I told you. The garden shed is bursting with stuff. The loft is full of old boxes. The shelves teem with ornaments. (eBay will have a good fiscal quarter the sad day they shuffle off this mortal coil.) And the drawers under the bed are stuffed with toys from our childhood.

Which turns out to be quite useful when you yourself have kids and an endless supply of goodies starts to emerge for free from Nana and Grandad. I’ve been reading this picture book to my older daughter, where a little boy hunts around for his lost pet froggie.

Very cute.

Speaking of which, I think we all know of a very cute voice application that’s currently hiding behind a log and looking a bit lost. Whatever happened to Skype’s mojo? Why wasn’t Skype 2.0’s arrival a case for dancing in the streets?

I can forgive the ringing noise being replaced by an extract from the opera Ode to a Kathmandu Stomach Upset. (Believe me, the full work is quite an experience. I’ve been there.) As a customer, I’m not too fussed whether video is a plug-in or comes out of the box. Tweaks in colour schemes and icons don’t impress me. (I’m male. It’s the way we are. I think my mum is still hoping I’ll notice when they’ve redecorated without having to prompt me first.)

No, what’s important is this. Make it work. And make it easy.

Let’s take the former one first. I bought a Plantronics DSP-400 USB headset a while back. It came “Skype certified” together with a small SkypeOut credit. I’m still happy with it. But it’s also very annoying to use. Because I like to listen to music from my laptop with real, quality headphones. Sometimes I unplug the headset when I move my laptop about, or want to use it on another PC, and Windows takes note and resets my audio devices to point to the built-in stuff. No matter how often I set my preferences in Skype to “Plantronics headset”, it keeps being turned back to Windows default each time I unplug. This is, needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), not a good experience.

Continue reading "Skype, where are you?" »

Posted by Martin Geddes at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)