Why Oprah's Skype day was ineffective: tone and Skype

Skype earned market acceptance when Oprah said "I love Skype" in 2008. Skype started to become a household name as Oprah brought guests to her her weekday show.

Thursday, a year later, she spent an hour in Skype's honor. Nothing happened; Skype's download rate didn't budge.

The "Where the Skype Are You?" show aired Thursday, 05/21/09, at 4:00 pm in most US and Canada markets, rolling across time zones. U.S. Memorial Day weekend might have dampened the "Oprah Effect." A few weeks' earlier, the Oprah Winfrey Show had a Nielsen Television rating of 5.4, 6,197,000 audience, and 7,110,000 viewers for the week of 04/27 - 05/03 2009.

Why didn't Oprah's Skype day work?

The small problem: The tone was wrong. It felt like an infomercial more than a celebration of broadband Internet's ubiquity. Oprah's delivery was wooden, the Skype conversations banal, video quality variable.

This episode must have looked great on paper. Skype reinforces several Oprah themes: Surviving tough economic times by using free or cheaper tools. The importance of family and communication. That we live in a connected world and affect each other. 

Sadly, Oprah's regulars already knew the Skype basics, having seen dozens of guest appearances over Skype. Skype day became a "best of" show; not the most exciting format.

The huge problem: Fans could not Skype Oprah. Unlike twitter, where Oprah created an account that everyone could follow and message, Oprah did not give out a Skype account for fans to befriend. People want to be closer to their celebrities so, for example, they followed Oprah on twitter; 1,182,301 at last count.

Why couldn't a million fans Skype Oprah?

Twitter scales well for their news and celebrity users (ones with high TV ratings). Fame changes relationships from symmetrical (we friend each other) to off the charts. 1,182,301 twitterers follow Oprah, Oprah follows 14.

Could Skype handle an Oprah account? Or a Coke, a White House, or an American Idol account? What would happen if someone with a fan base used the web and television to invite a million people to befriend them in Skype?  No PSTN, just in-network Skype activity. One user with a million friends.

Skype is engineered for the average user, with a handful of contacts and modest levels of activity. For the most part, Skype's network is thin, flat, like the long tail in a power curve.

Power skypers, like Skype Journal readers and those who work at Skype or who use Skype for selling, may have a few hundred or a few thousand contacts.

Stressors come to mind:

1. Approval work flow. Can you imagine opening up your Skype client in the morning to approve a hundred new contacts? You might get through 100 in 15 minutes if you click 'add to contacts' blindly. 1000 per day at 6 seconds each? Almost two hours. A million? 1,666 hours, about nine months. For all practical purposes, this must be automated.
2. Client Account Storage. Can your Skype client hold a million contacts? No. Even if it was the only software running and you had all the memory in the world, your Skype client was never built to hold that large a contact list. While some enterprises have hundreds of thousands of employees and and millions of stakeholders, Skype for Windows or Mac will slow to a crawl and crash when loading that many contacts. Let's say each new contact's profile, avatar, and history uses .1 MB. The contact list alone would be 100k MB. Skype still thinks like a phone or mobile phone company, not like a social network.
3. Presence and Activity Streams. Skype updates your friends when you log on, log off, or otherwise change your presence. A Skype client would be very busy with hundreds of thousands of mood and availability updates. Presence data might be very useful to the celebrity if you want to narrowcast updates ("today's show is about puppies") only to people who are online; no need for you to see the message when you log in next week.
4. Navigation. Skype's UI is not designed to let search, sort, browse, discover, organize a million contacts. Not even ten thousand contacts.
5. Filtering contact activity. If you friend them, they will IM, call, and send you files. I sometimes have a dozen public chats and private conversations going at once; dizzying. What happens when ten thousand people try to chat with you during today's financial conference call? You must automate your responses in ways that produce meaningful experiences and that route callers to relevant people and services.
6. Public vs. shades of private. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman revealed a deep flaw in Skype's identity system. Her MegAtWork Skype account was different than her personal account, and she could only log in to one at a time. Techniques vary, but a celebrity must be able to manage personal, family, workplace, acquaintances, and fans from one login, disclosing only as appropriate.
7. Swamping Skype supernodes and relays. What happens when one node on the Skype network connects with five to ten percent of the whole network? Can enough supernodes emerge in Chicago for Oprah, for example, to support all the new connections, updates and conversations? Will this hurt the experience of other Skype users in Chicagoland? How much of updating is done directly between a Skype client and Skype's presence and client-backup servers? Can that client-server connection be swamped as the volume rises four to five orders of magnitude over the norm?
8. No server side messaging, voice, video APIs. No software developer in their right mind wants to build and operate their own IM gateway. Think thousands of Skype clients running on hundreds of boxes, each needing careful administration. Instead they want to talk to a web service API. Services like IMified (congratulations, Voxeo!) let you design and run bots for the AIM, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google networks in hours, and without your getting into the gateway business. Skype isn't on the list because it doesn't host a public web service interface to the Skype network.

Why would Oprah want a million Skype fans?

Why would a brand or celebrity want to have a Skype relationship with so many people? For companies on Cluetrain 1.0 (markets are conversations) and moving to Cluetrain 2.0 (markets are relationships), Skype offers opportunities for engagement and intimacy. Unlike blogs or services like twitter, Skype conversations are held privately.

How will Oprahs engage?

1. Broadcast alerts and information. IM news relevant to fans based on language, interests, location, and length of relationship.
2. Deliver services. You could sign up for Oprah's book club, update Oprah's magazine subscriptions, get the link for the episode you missed, get local show times for next week, or suggest a show topic. Harpo Productions could support those services through a blend of voice mashups and call centers. How about Skyping an Oprah account that played a Skype video of her last show, or a show on demand?
3. Bring fans together. Introduce fans with similar interests to each other. Host thousands of small salons in Skype public chats before or after a show, or about a theme or a magazine topic. Help the millions find others to solve problems, share burdens, and make sense of the world.

See also:

• Jim Courtney's great play-by-play of the Oprah show
• flickr set of photos from the show

tags: skype, tv, television, us, canada, marketing, promotion, tie-in, oprahwinfrey, oprah, theoprahwinfreyshow, scale, fame

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
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Skype product placement: Who Wants to be a Millionaire (US)

"Millionaire has teamed up with Skype for "Ask The Expert," one of our most fun and innovative lifelines!"

From an August 2008 ABC press release: "Contestants are invited to ask an expert's advice on any question beyond the $1,000 level. Experts appear via a live face-to-face Skype video call and will include newsmakers, journalists, former "Millionaire" contestants, politicians, doctors, professors and trivia champs, among others. Bill Nye appears during the show's first week, airing September 8-12, and Ogi Ogas, a former "Millionaire" contestant who won $500,000, appears during week two, airing September 15-19."

Here's a video clip that shows Skype in action.

This version of Millionaire is in syndication in the US. It hasn't made Nielsen's top-twenty-most-popular-syndicated-shows lately, but it is seen by millions of households every week.

Experts Skype in to the television studio. In this clip, Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, calls in from Pleasantville, New York.

See the little white mark in the upper left corner? He's using Skype's High Quality (640x480@30fps) video.

The expert is shown on a large screen in the studio, exposing him to the in-studio experience and letting the contestant get a feel for how much to trust the expert with a lifeline.

When called on, the expert and the contestant talk to each other and the production team shows them side-by-side to the audience. The expert's reactions to being right, wrong, or not knowing add to the drama. 

On the web side of the business, this is the Millionaire home page. See the Skype artwork (bottom middle with the rainbow)?

The Skype badge takes you to the "Ask an Expert" landing page. It encourages you to download Skype. "It's free, easy and quick to get on Skype so check out all the great information below on how you can use Skype to connect with family and friends!"

This makes the fourth US/Canada television product product placement I know of in 2008. Oprah uses Skype for people to call her show, starting in March 2008. CNN started using Skype for interviews in March. And Skype was mentioned briefly in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent in July 2008 for a bit of character development involving transatlantic romance.

P.S. What television shows, movies, or characters would benefit from a little Skype?

tags: skype, video, television, tv, conferencing, whowantstobeamillionaire, millionaire, marketing, productplacement, game, shows, advertising, call, us, shortz

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Bold Twittering: When is a SmartPhone Truly a Mobile Microcomputer?

If I ever had any doubt about the value of Twitter as a commercial social networking tool, it evaporated this weekend as a result of following some Tweets on the subject of smartphones that appeared this weekend. They certainly provide an independent perspective on issues that I'm sure others are wondering about:

Mark Evans acquired an iPod Touch back in August after deciding he did not need an iPhone; as a result of his recent employment status change, he is now debating the merits of having a smartphone - in particular, an iPhone

Luca Filigheddu has just gone through the process of evaluating the BlackBerry Bold and iPhone over the past few weeks. Saturday he sent me a Twitter direct message to say that he had acquired a BlackBerry Bold; after he had had a few hours experience Saturday I see this on his Twitter feed:And when I came home yesterday evening I see that my acquaintance Olivier Chaine has put up this Tweet (earlier yesterday I had suggested, in response to his request for smartphone Twitter client recommendations, that he look at Slandr.Net as a mobile platform Twitter client):

First I would suggest that the mini-computer industry died many years ago, to be replaced by the microcomputer era, especially server banks. Trust me, I spent a major part of my career relying on mini-computers. I think I would need a backpack to be mobile with a mini-computer.

So I'll assume Mark is really looking to have a mobile microcomputer or PC experience on a smartphone. Having had several months' experience with both an iPhone and a BlackBerry Bold, here are my criteria for a mobile microcomputer or, more aptly, a "Laptop for the Hip or Purse":

• Minimum 480 x 320 graphics display.
• Full QWERTY keyboard.
• Web browser capable of supporting PC-type browsing.
• Supports "Cut & Paste" (of significant value more often than one would initially imagine until it's not available)
• View and edit MS Office documents (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) with potential to add document creation.
• Supports video recording and MMS
• Background processing (especially after experiencing both Truphone for BlackBerry and Truphone for iPhone)
• Supports true Instant Messaging in background while running other applications
• A very high speed processor (>500 MHz)
• Runs applications such as Qik.com, SlingPlayer Mobile and iSkoot (for voice and chat conversations with Skype contacts).
• Bluetooth stereo audio support.
• Removable battery
• Equipped for memory upgrades through a removable memory card.
• Supports both Both WiFi and 3G wireless protocols

A great set of specifications but the key question here is: "How does it change the user experience?". In particular does it eliminate the "urge" to turn on, or always carry, a laptop to keep up-to-date with real time activities?

As I have mentioned elsewhere, after a month's experience with the BlackBerry Bold, I found I had lost that tugging "urge" to turn on my laptop for keeping current with real time (and often mission critical) information. This change did not just involve email and web browsing but also Instant Messaging, Twitter and attached document editing.. RIM would do well to position Bold as a "Laptop for the Hip or Purse", bypassing all the technical comparisons and moving on to succinctly promoting Bold based on the actual user experience.

I like my iPhone for many of its personal information delivery features; it gives me a feel for what is appealing about the iPhone. I can find Toronto Transit streetcar times, do unit conversions, find the nearest Tim Horton's or Starbucks; it has lots of great information delivery features. On the media side it's definitely an extension of the iPod although it does not have the full audio performance of the Bold.

However, a mobile microcomputer the iPhone is NOT! Yes it uses a modified Mac OS; it uses Safari browser; it has an iPod variant.

However, I find myself turning to my Bold much more often than my iPhone for real two way interactivity. Just as important as the keyboard is the ability to track instant messaging sessions, whether on iSkoot (for Skype chat), Palringo or BlackBerry Messenger in background while carrying out other activities. On the subject of low cost international calling I find I can make much more use of Truphone for BlackBerry than Truphone for iPhone (that's the subject of a future post).

I am encountering more and more acquaintances who have no use for a touch keyboard; certainly my typing error rate is much worse on the iPhone. For this reason alone I consider the iPhone to be a very good one-way information delivery device whereas BlackBerry is a true two-way communications device.

As for applications, suffice it to say that over the next six months, where feasible, business savvy developers will publish applications running on both devices. For instance, The Hockey News has just released mobile applications for both the BlackBerry and iPhone. I mentioned Truphone above; Mobile Google apps are another example.

Keeping up with iTunes music via BlackBerry MediaSync is a trivial operation. Frankly from some video and audio streaming experiences I have had, BlackBerry Bold provides superior stereo audio performance even without earbuds or a headset.

Bottom line: when I leave my home office or hotel room with my Bold, I no longer have to take my laptop to keep current.

Yes, at the moment, the iPhone browser a superior user experience but rest assured RIM is not ignoring the issue. At this point the Bold's browser issues have sometimes been frustrating but they not been an inhibition to my browsing activities in any major way - I still get the information I am seeking. The critical parameter here is the 480 pixel display width, which is sufficient to view most websites and weblogs without the need for horizontal scrolling via a ribbon bar. When RIM releases carrier-specific versions of their upgraded operating system - including browser enhancements, the Bold will live up to its full potential as "A Laptop for the Hip or Purse".

(As for pricing on Rogers, both the Bold and iPhone are C$199 with a three year contract.)

In future posts I'll cover in more detail some of the issues mentioned above, including my Truphone evaluation on each device, some very amazing real time video and audio experiences, the range of third party applications available on each device and why both background processing and WiFi is becoming critical to any smartphone.

And, Mark, if you're looking for a mobile microcomputer, I would suggest serious consideration of the BlackBerry Bold. As a final determinant, have a look at the Bold's display - it's been universally acclaimed as "stunning"; I can only agree.

In closing, can we expect Skype to include BlackBerry as one of their supported platforms for Skype for Mobile? Or will iSkoot improve on their user interface to take advantage of some new BlackBerry developer tools? (Most Skype executives I meet are sporting a BlackBerry - it's supported by eBay IT.)

Update: Luca published a post this afternoon, A Bold New Experience, and asks about his Tweet above: "Why Did I Say That?"

1) Always on Experience: the BB is offering me a realtime always-on experience never found in any device I used before
2) Multitasking - It lets you receive IMs while writing an email or making a phone call, for example
3) Stunning display
4) Wide availability of apps
5) Crazy speed
6) Great usability

Other posts:

• Om Malik: Review: BlackBerry Bold is Beautiful
• Web Worker Daily: BlackBerry Bold: Upgrading Your Mobile Experience.
  

Full disclosure: the author has been holder of a minuscule number of RIM shares since 1998.

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eComm 2009 Registration Opens: Take Advantage of the Skype Journal Discount

Two weeks ago I wrote about eComm 2009 and the announcement of Skype's participation as a Platinum sponsor. Yesterday registration for eComm 2009 opened with a Super Early Bird Special pricing of $1,190.00 available to those who register prior to December 22, 2008 - a $600 discount from the Regular price that will apply after January 20, 2009..

But, as a Skype Journal reader, you can save even more. If you enter the promotional code "skypejournal", you'll get a 20% discount, taking that Super Early Bird price down to $952.

The speaker list is almost complete and Lee has announced a recently revised schedule.

Also note that eComm has arranged special conference group rates at the San Francisco Airport Marriott, available until February 8, 2009; note that, as has been my own experience at Marriott hotels for several years, all rooms have high speed Internet access included in the room rate.

An excellent deal for anyone who is interested in learning about developments in the rapidly evolving Emerging Communications space where Alec Saunders Voice 2.0 Manifesto is now turning into reality.

Volunteer Advisory Board member Brough Turner calls eComm 2009 the Best Conference Bet for 2009.

Tags: eComm2009, Lee Dryburgh, Voice 2.0 Manifesto

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Alec Saunders Twitters: "Ditching all IM Systems except Skype"!

When I started using Skype more intensively about three years ago, I had been a heavy user of Microsoft's MSN Messenger for several years. But about 18 months ago, I stopped logging into MSN Messenger; none of my contacts were there - or, if they were, they were also on Skype. As for GTalk, well I added a couple of contacts two weeks ago to test out GMail's new voice and video chat feature, so now I'm up to ten contacts on GTalk - and they are also all on Skype. One person still persists in trying to reach me on GTalk these days ... and my BlackBerry catches that - in background.
But when long time acquaintance, well respected blogger and former Microsoft employee Alec Saunders puts up a tweet as shown above, it has to be the ultimate complement to Skype's pervasive worldwide presence.
When you have 370 million accounts (yes, I know there are only 30 to 50 million using Skype over the course of a month), one would suspect that market presence and user base size wins out over any technical disadvantage, such as the lack of XMPP compliance. Sort of places XMPP right up there with SIP - an excellent protocol for interop but it's sort of like the tree falling in the forest - who hears it -at the end user level? And, both SIP and XMPP require business agreements between the linking service providers covering every connection, whether there's revenue or not.
In the IM world, it's a matter of who's available for a conversation? Which service has the highest probability of being able to determine a contact's availability and start a chat, voice call, share a file, send an SMS message or even do a (High Quality) video call? Which service has eight ways of seamlessly carrying out a file transfer?
Alec's one problem in keeping current? He'll have to go back to his BlackBerry to receive Skype IM messages via iSkoot. BlackBerry's background processing capability becomes a very distinct advantage here in the smartphone market. When attending an event in downtown Toronto last night I received an important "good news" Skype chat message on my BlackBerry Bold, while looking up a website the speaker was referencing and following the Twitter feed of one of the organizers.
A more significant challenge for Skype is to generate the marketing that will attract all those of a younger generation (such as my daughter) whose "social networks" are immersed into MSN Messenger as their IM client.
In closing have a look at some of Alec's followup Tweets:
In closing I should also mention that I like to use BlackBerry Messenger for its ability to bypass the Internet for messages that "just have to get there now!" via BlackBerry's unique method for PIN messaging.
Update: An oversight on my part: of course Skype IM also has the hooks to allow Skype chat sessions to proxy for other services. For a classic example check out Twitter4Skype.
Full disclosure: Alec Saunders is author of the Voice 2.0 Manifesto, which is proving itself out in today's dynamic mashup environment - especially when it comes to Communications Enhanced Business Processes. He is CEO of iotum, whose Calliflower Conference Call service is currently being launched. And, much earlier in his career, he was DOS product manger at Microsoft Canada at a time when DOS's memory management feature tried to compete with Quarterdeck's QEMM and the author managed Quarterdeck Canada.

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Tencent's QQ: 45 Million Simultaneous Online

Tencent Holdings (SEHK 700), one of Skype's biggest competitors, had a great quarter. From their 2008Q3 financial release (pdf):

• 856.2 million: Total registered Instant Messaging (“IM”) user accounts, 4.1% growth QoQ [quarter over quarter]
• 355.1 million: Active IM user accounts, +3.9% QoQ
• 45.3 million: Peak simultaneous online user accounts for IM services recorded, +7.9% QoQ
  
• 4.4 million: Peak simultaneous online user accounts of QQ Game portal (for mini casual games only), +11.2% QoQ
• 30.3 million: Internet paying subscriptions, +16.1% QoQ
• 14.8 million: Mobile paying subscriptions, +10.4% QoQ

More people actively use QQ instant messaging than live in the United States and Canada [Tencent defines "active" as logging in to an account in the last 30 days of the quarter].

QQ IM has 3 simultaneous users online for every Skype user online.

Skype has 370 million user accounts, does not report active users but estimates vary from 36 to 85 million people, and peak simultaneous is around 14.5 million.

Skype report minutes, when Tencent does not. Live voice and video calls. Ten billion minutes served in June 2005 (before eBay bought them). 100 billion minutes served as of February 2008. 18 billion minutes a quarter as of 2008-Q3.

Mini-SWOT

QQ has a few strengths.

• No QQ-In or QQ-Out. Regulations forbid connecting to the public telephone network. So Tencent focused their resources to create online communities, content, and games that both trigger talk and make money. QQ commerce is so hot QQ has one of the world's largest virtual currencies.
• Multiple OS clients. Windows. Windows Mobile. Mac beta. Browser. Linux. 
• Age and Incumbency. QQ celebrates their 10th year of service. Skype is only five years' old. Brand awareness and loyalty build with time and experience. QQ has effectively built IM dial-tone (confidence that people will be available through the network) and network lock-in for its customers.
• Monolingual, Monolithic. QQ only needs to support Chinese. So it's easier for people to find other people with similar interests. Spoken Chinese languages pose a linguistic barrier, but not too much since Mandarin is a common second language. 

Weaknesses.

• Sub-Global reach. Skype has to build markets in each country, in every language community. This makes it harder to localize software and web sites, provide customer service and tech support, and talk with a community; the time and costs pose a barrier to entry. Once localized, Skype has an advantage over entrants. QQ isn't even trying to serve non-Chinese cultures.
• No PSTN or mobile voice integration. No income. No new points for the company to learn.
• Platform 1.0. Like most IM providers, QQ offers a simple messaging API. A handful of third-party clients offer alternatives to QQ's own clients. However Tencent lacks a platform strategy, building foundations for third-party partnerships beyond IM clients.

Opportunities.

• Markets: India. Chinese Diaspora.
• Features: Voice/Video/Conferencing.
• Business: Alliances with Indian and western portal/IM companies

Threats.

• TOM-Skype joint venture. Working inside China to spread Skype's brand.
• Premium quality audio and video, a qualitatively different experience.
• The four national Chinese telcos who may enter the market and who restrict PSTN access.

tags: skype, im, voim, tencent, qq, china

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BlackBerry Bold: A Laptop for the Hip or Purse...

With about two months' experience using a BlackBerry Bold, I was able to pull my experiences together for Web Worker Daily yesterday when this smartphone became available on AT&T: BlackBerry Bold: Upgrading Your Mobile Experience.

Last night at a small local dinner on the topic of social networking in public relations, a few attendees had Bold as it has been available for a couple of months in Canada. Our consensus was that in a world where one wants to keep current in real time with Twitter, email, document viewing and editing (a new feature of Bold) and browsing weblogs or many websites, the BlackBerry Bold can be considered as the first generation "laptop for the hip or purse".

As for Skype via the Bold, whenever I'm away from home, I open iSkoot and am able to follow Skype chat messages (including Twitter4Skype) while riding the commuter services or in a restaurant. With Ontario's forthcoming law banning cell phone use (except for Bluetooth headsets) and text messaging while driving. it means safer roads but I may not respond immediately. Of course iSkoot also gives me calls to Skype contacts with only charges for local wireless minutes.

And, if you don't want to be "Always On", BlackBerry Bold (as well as the forthcoming Storm and Pearl 8220 Flip) includes a bedside mode feature with options to turn off both phone call and email notifications (but logs them) yet still allows the alarm to work.

BlackBerry will continue to be a major player in the smartphone market; but these new smartphones are devices you have to see and experience to realize their full potential as not only a business productivity resource but also a personal associate for both your business and personal social networks and activities.

Tags: BlackBerry Bold, iSkoot, mobile, smartphone

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November 2008 Events

I'm attending bold events.
Tips @ SkypeJournal.com with suggestions, photos, reportage. Spend your travel dollars while you have them.

2 November. Dreamforce 2008. Salesforce automation becomes an application platform for live talk. Moscone Center, San Francisco.

3. ARGS: Cross-Platform Entertainment 2.0. People in alternative reality games have strong reasons to talk live in groups. NESTA, London.

3. Defrag. Some of the hardest questions are tackled at this thought leadership event. Among others, Daniela Barbosa of DataPortability.org is speaking. Colorado Convention Center.

3. The Business of APIs - The Web's Industrial Revolution. Platforming as a strategy and survival trait. Brought to you by The Mashery. City Club of San Francisco.

3. Mobile 2.0. Grand Hyatt San Francisco.

3. Widget Summit. Putting some of your verbs into someone else's places. Hotel Nikko San Francisco.

3. ad:tech New York. The people who pay for lots of free. New York Hilton.

3. Future of Web Design. Roseland Ballroom, NYC.

3. VRM Hub London Conference 2008: Unlocking the see-saw. Vendor Relationship Management, putting people back in control of their identities and their relationships with companies. Sun Microsystems London.

4. US Election Day. If your election lasts for more than four hours, call your doctor.

4. Think Global, Drink Local: Think London/Sterling Communications Election Night Party. San Francisco.

4. Mobile Tech For Social Change. A barcamp. San Francisco.

5. Digital Garage New Context Conference. Joi Ito's clan convenes. Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.

5. Web 2.0 Summit. Still hankering for a press pass. Palace Hotel San Francisco.

5. WinHEC 2008. Windows hardware engineering. Los Angeles Convention Center.

5. Design Futures: Deconstructing Networks - Jonah Brucker-Cohen, of Trinity College Dublin, experiments in how we design and think about the social effect places and alert networks. U.C. Berkeley, California. 

6. Edge of the Web 2008. Perth has a growing Web 2.0+ community. Crawley, Western Australia. 

6. Tweets and Dreenks: November Social Drinkup. Mars Bar, San Francisco.

6. Mobile Forum Meeting: Opportunities in Broadband Wireless. San Jose, California.

6. Community Manager Meetup. San Francisco.

7. Unofficial iPhone TechTalk after-drinks. The Apple event at University of Middlesex is full. London.

8. Silicon Valley Code Camp. Hands-on with peer coaching. Los Altos Hills, California.

8. Freebase Hack Day. Build something with massive quantities of creative commons'd data. San Francisco.

10. Mobile Monday London.

10. Internet Identity Workshop. iiw2008b is a must-go event. This is where the digital ID architecture of the next 10 years is conceived, debated, and bought into. Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA.

10. VoiceCon. Enterprise and unified communications. San Francisco.

11. e-Democracy '08. The first post-US election event to explore politics, public participation and digital technology. RIBA, Central London.

11. US Veteran's Day, Canada and UK Remembrance Day. National holiday.

12. Emerging Communications Dinner. Thought leaders who can't wait for eComm2009 March 03-05 will talk over supper. Ping me if you want an invite. (tips at skypejournal.com) San Francisco Airport Marriott.

12. Under the Radar: Mobility. 32 mobile startups less than one year old. Microsoft, Mountain View, California.

12. The Second London Futures Symposium. London.

13. NewTeeVee Live – Television Reinvented. Mission Bay Conference Center.

13. OpenSocial's 1st Birthday Celebration. Day long workshops. And cake. MySpace Offices, San Francisco.

13. IceWeb08. Kathy Sierra keynoting. Reykjavik. 

15. Convergence 08. Focus on long-term technologies, especially Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno. Co-sponsored by Foresight.org. Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California.

15. >play – Berkeley Digital Media. This year's theme is Disruption: Changes in the Digital Media Landscape. Organized by MBA students at Haas, U.C. Berkeley, California.

16. Adobe MAX 2008. Designers and developers imagine the next generation of browser-based talk. Moscone Center, San Francisco.

16. Fall IETF Meeting. Minneapolis, Minnesota, US.

17. Future of Mobile. Jemima Kiss, James Brody, and folks from Google, Symbian, and Mozilla make this a must attend event. Kensington Town Hall, London.

17. Mashup Camp. Steve Repetti of DataPortability.org is speaking at this mostly un-conference. Mountain View, California.

18. Mobile Content Forum. The event for all those companies who made millions on ringtones and wallpaper. Register from your iPhone, baby. Hilton London Kensington.

19. Open Mobile Summit 08. Discount: Register by Oct 10 with priority code TRL and save $400. agenda. trailer:

Fantastic hallway with Skype's Jonathan Christensen, AT&T, Dean Bubley, Om Malik, Rebtel, BT Design's JP Rangaswami, Truphone's James Body, Orange, O2, The US FCC's Julius Knapp, David Isenberg, Amazon, T-Mobile, AOL, Nokia, Google, Symbian, Intel, TAT, LG, RIM, OpenMoko, Funambol, Qualcomm. San Francisco.

18. Robo Development 2008. Robotics small, large, smart, and social. Santa Clara, California.

19. SOA World and Cloud Computing. The 14th Service Oriented Architecture conference. Now the standard for platforming architectures. I want to hear the session on building real-time SOA systems. The program's big buzzwords: cloud and virtual. The Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, California.

21. London Geek Nights: Game Programming. ThoughtWorks UK Office, High Holborn, London.

22. YouTube Live. Concert. Fort Mason, San Francisco.

22. Berkeley beats Stanford. Football. Go Bears.

26. The Media Festival. The session I want: "Case study: Lessons from the adult entertainment industry; learn the secrets of success in mobile entertainment." Always two to five years' ahead in technology and business practices due to intense competition. Manchester.

27. US Thanksgiving. A nation shuts down for a long weekend of American football, turkey, beer. And gratitude.

30. St. Andrew's Day. Scotland's national day.

Logitech to Acquire SightSpeed. Questions Arise.

According to Tech Crunch and GigaOm posts late last night Logitech is about to spend $30 million to acquire SightSpeed, the video messaging and video conferencing service that recently was selected ot provide the infrastructure for Dell's Video Chat. Congratulations to Peter Csathy and his team. And to Andy Abramson and his team; another Comunicano client achieves success.

Seems like the video calling and video conferencing market is about to heat up. There will be another post later this morning involving an announcement that can bring video conferencing to a much broader user audience than Skype's (though it's not exactly insignificant) and SightSpeed's.
Questions that arise from this acquisition:

• How is Logitech able to continue to partner with services such as Skype when they are now entering the desktop video services market? Logitech's co-operation was vital to Skype's ability to provide High Quality Video.
  
• Or is it a produce marketing acquisition? Is Logitech acquiring SightSpeed simply to have additional collateral software to provide with their webcam offerings? Will we start to see Logitech's Carl-Zeiss optics in embedded webcams on Dell PC's?

The economy may be in recession; it's driving less travel and more audio and video conferencing. They're seeing a rise in customers and use of audio conferencing at both HiDef Conferencing and Calliflower. It will be an interesting winter for expanding user experiences involving desktop video.

Logitech Press Release

Update: Alec Saunders comments on the same theme here.
Tags: Logitech, SightSpeed, Skype, Peter Csathy, Tech Crunc, GigaOm, HiDef Conferencing, Calliflower

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Marathon Skype voice call: 66 hours 40 minutes

Guest post by Monty, a Palmdale, California, ham radio operator and computer geek. Monty blogs on LiveJournal, tweets, and is on Skype.

Tuesday, 21 October 2008

4:08 AM. Chatting with Guthro. We've been connected for over 10 hrs 45 mins, wow!

8:02 PM. Attempting to have a single Skype call that lasts at least 24 hours, to see what Skype's display shows after 1 day call duration

8:04 PM. Guthro's PC crashed, so call duration only got to 22 hrs, 31 mins, trying again now though shooting for 24 hours.

 

Wednesday, 22 October 2008

6:05 pm: a pointless but interesting Skype call duration experiment

Beginning Monday evening, I got this crazy pointless idea where I wondered how Skype would display call duration time on a call if it exceeded 24 hours. I wondered if it would show time as days, hours, minutes, seconds, or if it'd show hours, minutes, seconds, as it does for calls greater than 1 hour.

So in an attempt to find out what would happen after the 24-hour mark of a Skype call, I called my friend Adam Guthro in Canada, and kept connected, even after he went to sleep and everything. My previous Skype record for a single call was actually a Skype out call to Bec that lasted 12 and a half hours.

That long standing record of mine was shattered yesterday when Adam Guthro and I reached the 22 hour, 31 minute, 20 second mark of our long call. The attempt to reach and pass 24 hours failed at that point, as Guthro's computer decided to reboot itself due to Guthro working it too hard.

So we tried again yesterday into today, and this time results were much better, and in fact the experiment is ongoing as I write this.

As the counter passed 24 hours, Skype did not switch to showing call durations as 1:00:00 as you may have expected, but rather it continues to show time in hours.

As of this entry, our call duration is 24:20:00.

Now I wonder how much longer we can keep the call live? I wonder if we can break a record for longest connected Skype call? Guthro wants to try and break the 100 hour mark. I'll be very amazed if we get anywhere close to that, but if we do, I'd have to guess we'll shatter any known records for longest Skype call ever. Wouldn't that be unique.

Hmm wonder if I should try for longest SkypeOut call duration next? Yes pointless experiments, but fun nonetheless.

2:56 AM. Going to bed, just finished chatting on radio with a good friend, then chatting with Patrick for a bit, that was fun 

2:59 AM. Skype duration now 9 hours exactly on my Skype experiment. 

10:59 AM. Installed Skype scripts, current duration of experiment with Guthro, about 17 hours now and counting! 

12:01 PM. Just finished watching the news, another warm day, temperatures in the 80's to low 90's in much of Socal.

5:09 PM. Longest Skype call experiment continues at this hour, previous record broken, now at 23 hours, 10 minutes! 

6:01 PM. We've passed 24 hours of Skype call duration with Guthro and I, and Skype shows call time in hours after 24 hours, interesting! 

9:32 PM. Just had a good dinner with sausages, Skype experiment continues now past 27 and a half hours! 

 

Thursday, 23 October 2008

3:22 AM. Guthro's up for another day, our long Skype call continues at over 33 hours now!

11:08 AM. 41 hours, 8 minutes now, Skype call duration, and on we go, trying to wake up.

about 18 hours ago. We've now passed the 50 hour mark in my Skype call with Guthro, and we're still going, wow how long will our PC's stay connected? 

about 11 hours ago. Waking up on this Friday morning. Skype call at 58 hours 18 minutes, Jdawg left at 50.5 hrs 

about 6 hours ago. watching the Lunar lander challenge live at http://spacevidcast.com/live, though not totally sure what it is.

about 3 hours ago. Skype call with Guthro and I now over 66 hours in duration. 

about 2 hours ago. Skype call ended abruptly thanks to computer rebooting itself. gurr piss! about 66 hrs 40 min record to beat 

Friday, October 24th, 2008. 1:18 pm

Skype experiment ends abruptly, 66 hours, 40 minutes the new record to beat

My crazy experiment with Skype to try and see how long I can maintain a single Skype call, has ended abruptly after 66 hours and 40 minutes.

It ended without warning, as my computer decided to reboot itself suddenly while I was browsing the web, disconnecting not only my 66 hour plus chat with Guthro, but my telephone call I was on hold with as well! I don't know why the computer randomly rebooted, but I'm assuming it does that when there is low memory, as I did have a couple web browsers open at the time.

If I try this experiment again, I'll have to try and be sure only Skype is the only active window most of the time.

Ironically, Guthro's call duration is still climbing, since Jdawg remained connected to him when I dropped, therefore his portion of the experiment continues, and he's up over 67 hours now of total call duration, and he's shooting for 100 hours. Can he make it, or will he suffer the same fate as me and get the dreaded random no warning reboot? I'll let you know.

UPDATE: The Skype experiment has in fact officially ended with all parties, as Guthro['s connection] died after 73 hours, 15 minutes. so that's the new record.

tags: skype, marathon, endurance, hours, days, record, fun

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Hello Apple! IPEVO diversifies

Speakerphones. I love 'em. I'm using one from IPEVO now.

Swing by your local Apple store and you'll find IPEVO's new TR-10 for iChat in the speaker section.

It's the TR-10 for Skype but with reprinted buttons and software for your Mac. IPEVO's software lets you control iChat from the trio and record your iChat calls. $79.90 MSRP.

Gee. Apple? For a company created to build products for Skype in North America?

Skype hasn't promoted IPEVO's seven Skype-integrated products much.

• Only occasional referrals from Skype.com to IPEVO.com.
• Skype certification which lets IPEVO put a Skype logo/badge on their boxes, for which IPEVO pays a hefty royalty.
• Skype helped some hardware partners find some shelf space in Wal-Marts for the last two years, but not IPEVO.
• It's only been this year that Skype is finally becoming a consumer brand name in the US and Canada.

I can't find IPEVO in the online Skype store.

Apple, on the other hand, has stores. These are shots of the merchandise on Cupertino and New York City shelves. 

 

Skype had the potential for a large and healthy hardware ecosystem. Sadly, hardware partners from Skype's early days have burned through so much cash, talent and goodwill, that most have walked away from Skype.

The few remaining, like IPEVO, are eager to partner with companies that help them demonstrate design leadership or even simple distribution support. They may love Skype, but relationships are two-way streets.

From the spec sheet:

Package Content

• IPEVO TR-10 for iChat
• Installation CD http://www.ipevo.com/mac
• USB Cable
• USB Extension Cord
• Quick Guide

Dimensions / Weight

• Size: 15.1x4.2x3.7cm (LxWxH)
• Weight: 140g

Color

• White

Control Buttons

• iChat window launch
• Dial / Answer
• Cancel / Hang up
• MIC mute
• Volume control
• Record / Pause
• Stop record
• Mode switch

LED Indicators

• Green Active LED to indicate: incoming call, outgoing call, call in
  progress
• Red Active LED to indicate: microphone mute
• Green Power LED to indicate: power on/off
• Red Record LED to indicate: record on/off/pause
• Green Switch LED to indicate: speaker / handset mode

Audio Performance

• Microphone Voice Sampling Rate: (UPDATED 17-October-2008)
• Speakerphone: 8KHz
• Handset (holding up to your ear): 16Khz
• Communication: Full Duplex
• Echo cancellation: up to 60dB
• Support AGC (auto gain control) function

Electrical Specifications

• Operating Voltage: 4.5V ~ 5.5V
• Magnetic Speaker
  • Coil Resistance: 4 +/- 0.6 Ohm
  • Sound Pressure Level: 80 dBSPL@0.5m
• Condenser Microphone
  • Omni directional
  • Sensitivity: -36 +/- 3 dB
• Receiver
  • Sensitivity: 90 dBA
  • Frequency response: 180~7Hz

Hardware Description

• USB 2.0 compatible
• Internal omni microphone
• 4Ω 2W speaker
• Power from USB

System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows XP and Vista (32-bit)
• Mac OS X 10.4 up
• 400MHz processor
• 128MB RAM
• 40MB free hard disk space
• USB port
• CD-ROM drive
• Broadband Internet connection (DSL, Cable Modem…, etc)

Regulatory Compliance

• FCC
• CE
• RoHs

See also:

• IPEVO's TR-10 speakerphone makes nice with iChat, Engadget
• Le téléphone compatible iChat, macplus
• IPEVO Teams With Skype To Offer A Range Of Skype-Enabled Devices in US, Skype press release, October 2005

tags: skype, ipevo, voip, speakerphone, speaker, microphone, ichat, apple

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Photo credits: IPEVO.

TOM-Skype Breach: Meeting the Primary Investigator

This is the first of four posts resulting from an interview with Nart Villeneuve, principle investigator of the Citizen Lab report "Breaching Trust".

Last Tuesday afternoon I returned to a University of Toronto building I had last visited in its role as an engineering students' residence in the mid-1960's. Abandoned as a residence in the 1980's, the building was restored in the late 1990's to house the Munk Centre for International Studies, when the university's Centre for International Studies was designated as a strategic priority for future growth. In the basement of the former Devonshire Place South House, I found the Citizen Lab, "an interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on advanced research and development at the intersection of digital media and world civic politics".


I spent 90 minutes with Nart Villeneuve, the PhD student and Psiphon Fellow, who was the principle investigator resulting in the Citizen Lab's recently published "Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices of China's TOM-Skype platform". We covered a wide range of issues related to this report, from the initial contact with New York Times through to the follow up activities as a result of the report's release. We also discussed the broader mission of the Citizen Lab and some recommendations for how Skype should address the challenge of participating in the China market while making all parties aware that their conversation activity may be tracked.

Key points about the report and the follow up activity:

• A major issue to address in dealing with the media has been the confusion resulting because there is a need to separate out the security breach that allowed Nart to gather the data he has gathered and the functionality of the TOM-Skype servers resulting in the capture and logging of chat conversations and Skype calling activity. (There was no evidence of capturing voice calls themselves).
• As a result of reporting this breach prior to release of the document to New York Times, the security breach itself has been closed but there is no evidence that the actual information capture activity has ceased. Nart has been checking periodically to confirm that the security breach remains closed.
• There was a period of several hours between finally establishing contact with someone at Skype who could initiate action to address the security breach and the final close down of the breach. During this time Nart observed blocking of read access to the directories but since he knew the file names he was still able to follow a reconfiguration of the web servers, removal of sensitive files, such as an encryption key, and disappearance of the log files such that they were not accessible.
• While they have captured a significant quantity of call log data going back a year, they are being careful not to expose any of the detailed information which comprised both chat message logs and what amounts to call detail records for voice calls; more details are in the report itself. Basically they don't want to compromise anyone individually.
• While the log files are still under analysis, they have been encrypted while he continues to mine them for any additional information they may expose. Eventually it is his intention to destroy even these files.
• Messages were about 40% Chinese, 60% English with a small smattering of other languages.
• While it would be very difficult to reconstruct an entire conversation thread, as only each individual message was logged with no ready reference to other messages within the thread, they could build social graphs of conversing parties.
• There are at least two versions of the TOM-Skype client: a normal version and a second version with additional features such as a Baidu Toolbar; however, the promote.dll module in this can trigger off anti-virus scanners such as Norton.
• Other evidence that the servers had been compromised was the discovery that the servers were hosting "pirate" movies and had the appropriate software to support Bit Torrent transfers.

Nart had three definite recommendations for Skype; we also covered the broader issue of global enterprises doing business in China. These will be covered in future posts.
Next post: The Citizen Lab: Its broader mission and findings.
Tags: Skype, Citizen Lab, Breaching Trust, TOM Online, TOM-Skype, Nart Villeneuve, Munk Centre for International Studies

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Blackberry Bold: Challenged to Deliver on Its Full Potential

Over the past five weeks I have had the opportunity to work with the Blackberry Bold on the Rogers network, including a week in California where I used it on AT&T's network. While it has provided significant performance improvements over my previous 8820 and has several applications that just are not available for the iPhone, I still had the feeling I was running with late beta stage or release candidate firmware. The availability of a new firmware release over the past weekend has changed that feeling. But its U.S. release on AT&T has also been dogged by 3G network robustness issues.
Let me put some of these issues in perspective, incorporating my own experience with the Bold on both networks.
There are two major technical issues related to the Bold:

• Network robustness issues at AT&T
• Firmware issues that have possibly resulted in suspension of deliveries at Orange (and reports of inventory shortages at other carriers)

First, to cover the AT&T network robustness issues:

• as reported in RIM's second-quarter report, 60 carriers in 29 countries have launched the Bold, including Canada where I've had a Bold running on Rogers for the past five weeks.
  
• several recent news reports have reported on network robustness issues as a contributor to the delayed launch on AT&T: Globe and Mail, TMCNet, CrunchGear
• a personal indicator: on a recent trip to California both my Blackberry Bold and iPhone 3G found an "EDGE" signal on AT&T more often than it found a 3G signal (in spite of setting the Bold to only operate on 3G). On the Rogers network I find the "3G" signal (in supported urban areas, such as Toronto and Montreal) more than 95 percent of the time.

I have to conclude, combining these issues, that the AT&T network robustness issues are real and serve as a threat to RIM's ability to penetrate the U.S. market via the Bold. On the other hand the pending launch of Blackberry Storm at Verizon may become RIM's primary route to to the U.S. market for their 3G smartphones, given Verizon's reputation for, and experience with, 3G networks along with their extensive customer base. (Why else would several of my U.S.-based blogging colleagues attending the recent IT Expo all be running their laptops on Verizon for Internet connectivity with no complaints?)
Five weeks' experience with the Bold tells me about its firmware:

• It delivers a significant performance improvement relative to the Blackberry 8820 I have been using for the past year. An half-VGA display with over 200 dpi resolution, 3G network speed and 624 Mhz processor speed all contribute.
• At no time has my experience to date inhibited my ability to carry on my normal mobile-supported business activities. I have had an opportunity to successfully take advantage of new applications such as editing Word documents.
• The display grows on you; when you find crystal clear small fonts or view Google Maps, you get this "how did they do this?" feeling. As indicated in other reviews, it's stunning. And the supported resolution is a major contributor to my next point.
• The Bold is definitely a game changer. After my week of traveling to California with the Bold, I realized that I was experiencing a significant change in my mobile device work patterns. I was simply going to the Bold to keep current not only on email (using a strategic combination of both Blackberry Mail and GMail) but also on my Twitter feed, Facebook and Google Reader. I was able to not only read but also edit Word documents. I had lost the anxiety-inflamed urge to fire up my laptop PC to remain "always connected"; One non-technical acquaintance who has had a Bold since the Rogers launch in late August commented to me last weekend "I'm beginning to think my Bold is more powerful than my notebook".
• At Mobilize 08 I met Google Maps senior product manager Steve Lee who pointed me to a new version of Google Maps for Blackberry which added Street View to the feature set available on Blackberry. While Google Maps itself is an excellent demonstration of both the Bold's display quality and speed, turning on Street View and either moving down a street or rotating around a selected address brings into play both network and processor speeds to dynamically generate high quality images. (While this is a feature that will be included on Android, it is still not available on the iPhone.)
• Using Blackberry's MediaSync, I can keep my music files updated by syncing with iTunes. But I also found having the trackball mouse a significant benefit when transcribing our interview with Josh Silverman via the media player; basically I was using the Bold as a Dictaphone.
• Skype chats running in iSkoot can run in background and provide notification when new chat messages appear. Also when my home office broadband was down recently for a neighborhood cable upgrade, I was able to use iSkoot to call into the daily SquawkBox conference call.
• Performance on WiFi has been excellent; walk into a registered WiFi zone and the Bold picks it up immediately. The actual registration process itself for a WiFi zone could be smoother but otherwise it works as expected.
• However, the Bold has been by no means perfect. Web pages would sometimes come up slowly; on some sites I would randomly get either the actual PC version of a page or the mobile version of the site. Sites were often stripped down to their basic content, absent of banners and sidebars. YouTube videos would stall with a "buffering" indicator appearing in the display; I was never able to view the complete video. I started to feel this was late beta stage firmware, not quite ready for "Main Street". And then Friday reports appeared that Orange was possibly suspending Blackberry shipments due to software quality issues.

Friday evening I learned that RIM had released new firmware for Blackberry Bold on Rogers. It was described as addressing browser issues, delivering more stability and improving memory management, amongst other issues. I installed it quite seamlessly Saturday morning with the following immediate observations:

• The browser is much faster at bringing up standard web pages and renders original web pages correctly. Pages with few "feature enhancements" involving "scripts" load as rapidly as on the iPhone; pages with lots of "scripts" do take longer but are correctly and much more rapidly rendered.
• YouTube videos can now be played to the end. On some videos I encounter a momentary "buffering" delay but they always went to completion. The actual player itself could provide better video quality to achieve the superb quality I have seen on the Bold's display when mpeg movie files are run but a user can readily follow the YouTube video action.
• After two days' use, using the phone itself only minimally but with lots of web activity over WiFi, my battery is only down to the 40% level whereas with the earlier version I found I had to always do a daily overnight recharge.

Other issues need a few days' use to determine if they have been addressed. But overall this upgraded Bold firmware appears to spell good news for not only Blackberry Bold but also the Blackberry Storm whose major differences involve radio bands supported, slightly larger display resolution and the type of keyboard but otherwise are based on the same underlying operating system, application and browser firmware.
The question that remains here is whether AT&T can fix their network problems in the near future or will the pending launch of Blackberry Storm become the real Blackberry 3G device launch product? For once I am quite happy to be a Rogers customer where they have spent over a year working with 3G technology prior to the Bold's launch and the network performance is "just there".
Bottom line: the Bold allows new user work patterns for mobile smartphones. It significantly reduces or removes the reliance on laptops to keep current with many communications activities, whether Skype Chat, Twitter Feeds or even minor document modification. Its 480 x 320 display makes it easy to read blog posts without ribbon bars. Background processing allows true multi-tasking. If you're in a country where it is available it is worth checking out (especially once any residual firmware issues are resolved; if you're in the U.S., it's worth having the patience to await its release on AT&T or even the Storm's release on Verizon.
Disclosure: the author has held a minuscule number of RIM shares since 1998.

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Nart Villeneuve's Q&A on TOM-Skype's Firewall Breach

Internet Censorship Explorer Nart Villeneuve has been getting lots of questions about his "Breaching Trust" report and issued a Q&A that answers some common questions. Initially he describes how he determined that messages containing key words were being uploaded to a web server. (The technologically curious can get the answer through accessing the link.) He then goes on to say:

Is “normal” Skype affected?
No. The Skype software downloaded from skype.com is not affected by the behavior. The only time “normal” Skype users are affected is when they communicate with TOM-Skype users.
What is TOM-Skype and what is the difference between it and Skype?
If you go to www.skype.com from China, you are redirected to skype.tom.com — so that’s [the] version most Chinese people will use.
In 2004 Skype developed a relationship with TOM Online, a leading wireless provider in China, and announced a joint venture in 2005. Skype and TOM Online produced a special version of the Skype software, known as TOM-Skype, for use in China.
What is Skype saying, have they said anything to you?
I contacted Skype to have the security issue fixed before the report was released. So, they have configured the servers so that one can no longer view the logs and they have deleted sensitive files, such as the one containing the encryption key. Other than that contact, I’ve only seen the statements they’ve made to reporters.

The irony here is that if I find someone using the "F" word inappropriately, at my discretion, they may be deleted from my Facebook friends or Twitter contacts. In one case I reported the use to the person's parent; that person continues to be a Facebook friend but now posts without the expletives. The paranoid in me could ask "are the Chinese trying to clean up the expression of the English language?"
In closing, I would recall that Skype was involved as an element of the process in getting out to the world the message when some "Free Tibet" demonstrators put a banner up on the Great Wall of China last spring.
Hat tip to Rebecca MacKinnon for pointing to this Q&A. As mentioned in my comment to her post, for the first time in its five year history, we have seen a timely response in a crisis situation directly from the top executive at Skype; hopefully this reflects on the new directions and attitude Skype's new management team is taking in becoming more transparent with the public. Of course, along with the reported dialogue between Nart and Skype personnel, it means all the technology speculators out there have no opportunity to exercise their minds by delving into the (non)-complexity of how this was detected and corrected. But the blogosphere will survive; other issues will be taken up.

TOM-Skype Breach: What is filtered most?

Milk powder. Ah, so the list is updated frequently. 

SARS. Cripple public safety worker communications for the next outbreak?

Skype. Hah!

Chart and terms provided in BREACHING TRUST: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China’s TOM-Skype platform by Nart Villeneuve, Psiphon Fellow, The Citizen Lab, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Information Warfare Monitor Joint Report, ONI Asia (JR01-2008). 1 October 2008.

 

tags: skype, tom-skype, communist, Communist Party, Falun, Hu Jintao, Taiwan independence, Wen Jiabao, quit the party, Jiang Zemin, June 4, Olympic Games, Nine Commentaries, Li Hongzhi, earthquake, democracy, Tibet, Mao Zedong, Circumvention, Deng Xiaoping, Diaoyu Islands, Kuomintang, Tiananmen, milk powder, SARS, Voice of America, free door, filter, anti-blockade browser, Garden Network

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TOM-Skype Breach: Chinese TV News

Ｓｋｙｐｅ在中國的合資公司Ｔｏｍ－Ｓｋｙｐｅ，爆發擅自儲存數以百萬則用戶的簡訊， 並且將訊息儲存在缺乏足夠保密措施的電腦上，使外部人士可以很容易監控這些簡訊，對此 Ｓｋｙｐｅ公司向用戶道歉。

根據加拿大多倫多大學的電腦安全專家發表報告披露，Ｓｋｙｐｅ在中國的合資公司Ｔｏｍ－Ｓｋｙｐｅ長期監控用戶在網上聊天的記錄，並且把包含了敏感內容的訊息，儲存在可從公司外部進入的伺服器上，但是由於缺乏安全措施，使外部人士可以輕易的查看經過監控系統過濾的超過一百萬則簡訊，其中很多包括政治敏感詞彙，包括共產黨、法輪功、胡錦濤、台灣獨立、溫家寶等政治敏感關鍵字，地震、奶粉等字眼也在監控範圍之內，由於Ｔｏｍ－Ｓｋｙｐｅ並沒有將事先這項行為通報Ｓｋｙｐｅ或是獲得Ｓｋｙｐｅ批准，因此Ｓｋｙｐ ｅ向用戶提出道歉。

[Google machine translation:]

Skype's joint venture in China, Tom-Skype, the outbreak of the unauthorized storage of millions of messages the user and the message will be stored in a lack of adequate security measures on the computer, so that outsiders can easily monitor these messages, the Skype's users are An apology.

According to the University of Toronto, Canada, computer security experts issued a report on disclosure, Skype's joint venture in China, Tom-Skype users in the long-term monitoring on-line chat records, and to contain sensitive content of the message can be stored in an external company to enter the server , But due to the lack of safety measures, so that outsiders can easily see through the monitoring system to filter the more than 1,000,000 text messages, many of which include politically sensitive terms, including the Communist Party, Falun Gong, Hu Jintao, Taiwan independence, Wen Jiabao, and other politically sensitive keywords , Earthquakes, and words such as milk powder is also within the scope of monitoring, as the Tom-Skype has not informed in advance of this act or Skype was approved by Skype, so Skype apology to the users.

tags: skype, breach, china, news, tom-skype

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The Story Behind the Story: How a Canadian cracked the Great Firewall of China

As a four time graduate of the University of Toronto, I am glad to see the atmosphere for investigative research is thriving at my alma mater. A researcher at their unique Citizen Lab, "focusing on advanced research and development at the intersection of digital media and world civic politics", is responsible for uncovering the TOM-Skype security breach that has had widespread coverage.
Globe and Mail reporter Matt Hartley has obviously gone to the lab for an interview with researcher Nart Villeneuve for his article in today's editions: How a Canadian cracked the Great Firewall of China. .... the irony of where "lost passwords" can lead you:

When he couldn't remember the password to his Chinese MySpace account he decided to take a look at Skype.
...Using a TOM-Skype account on one computer and a regular Skype account on a nearby laptop, Mr. Villeneuve would type a word into one computer and see if the other computer received the message, to see what information would be filtered out by the service's censorship tools. When he typed in a common four-letter expletive and hit send, it didn't show up on the other computer. But he noticed something else.

Read on. Further along Matt reports:

After he contacted Skype on Wednesday to inform them of the breach, the company moved quickly to plug the holes in the TOM-Skype servers, Mr. Villeneuve said.

And, as Phil has already reported, Skype President Josh Silverman responds here, including this comment:

It's important to remind everybody that the issues highlighted in yesterday's Information Warfare Monitor / ONI Asia report refer only to communications in which one or more parties are using TOM software to conduct instant messaging. It does not affect communications where all parties are using standard Skype software. Skype-to-Skype communications are, and always have been, completely secure and private.

New York Times, Oct. 2 (registration required)
Wall Street Journal (may encounter a walled garden), noting that TOM-Skype has 69 million users, places this story in the perspective of other "Doing business in China" stories involving Microsoft, Google and Yahoo.

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Skype 4.0 for Windows Beta 2 Available Wednesday

Wednesday, October 1, the second beta release of Skype 4.0 for Windows will become available for worldwide testing. Via a mix of the Skype 4.0 for Windows Beta 1 feedback channels involving legacy users and new users, bug reporting and usability issue forums and direct surveys that resulted in over 45,000 participants' responses and feedback, Skype learned:

• 70% were in favor of the new "large desktop" user interface; about 30% wanted to return to the traditional compact user interface.
• users were looking for improved means of organizing contacts by groups
• relative to pre-Skype 4.0 beta 1 surveys, increased awareness of the multi-modal features of Skype such as IM, file transfer and SMS.
• there existed problems with how IM presented itself to the new user
• users were missing Instant messages and other events due to a lack of appropriate notification procedures
• increased conversions rate to paid Skype subscriptions
  

As a result Skype 4.0 beta 2 includes:

• user choice of a default "large desktop" view or a compact view
• organization of contacts by categories with several default categories (the term "Groups" now refers to a multitude of users within a conversation such as in a Group Chat, Public chat or on a multi-party call)
• new drop down menu to select "Categories" from the "Contacts" tab
• new algorithms for message and missed call notification, with the initial notification coming via a tag on the Skype System Tray icon so as not to make the notification activity overwhelming
• a new way to display a selected Contact's information when in a call or chat session
• several options for resizing the user information, the video images, the chat area of a conversation, etc.
• entry of PSTN phone numbers into a Contact's information on your local PC for those Contacts who have not included these phone numbers in their Skype user profile: mobile, home, office, other.

Skype for Windows Product Manager Mike Bartlett has prepared a video to demonstrate some of the new features:

And you can download Skype 4.0 for Windows Beta 2 here.
Skype 4.0 for Windows Beta 2 has the same caveat as we issued for Skype 4.0 Beta 1: this is beta software, there will be bugs and may even be usability issues. This is your opportunity to provide feedback. It is still missing some features of Skype 3.8, the last officially released version of Skype, such as Call History and creation of Public Chats. Do not use it as your primary Skype interface, especially if you depend on Skype for business or professional communications. I am still running Skype 3.8 on my laptop; I run Skype 4.0 Beta on my desktop PC.
Phil will be posting tomorrow with more details on his experience.

Check out Alec Saunders comments. And Mike Bartlett appeared as the featured guest on the October 1, 2008 SquawkBox. Click on the link to access the recording.
We asked about any upcoming Skype for Mac; the response was along the lines of (i) the Mac group is also examining the feedback from the Skype 4.0 for Windows Beta 1 for ideas to incorporate and (ii) when a new version does come along it may have some features that are not available on Skype 4.0 for Windows.

Hint: to activate the Contact Categories feature, go to Contacts | Contact Categories | See All Contact Categories.

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Skype Journal Interviews Josh Silverman: The Way Ahead - Markets

This is the fifth in a series of posts resulting from an interview a week ago Friday with Josh Silverman, Skype's recently appointed President. In this post we talk about addressing the small-to-medium business market as well as various geographical markets.
Over its five years, Skype has built up, almost totally virally, a significant base of users who take advantage of Skype to not only reduce their business communications costs but also to communicate more effectively with colleagues and customers around the world. At the same time various Skype software partners have built offerings, such as Pamela, PamFax and Skylook, that either focus on Skype as a business communications tool or include Skype amongst their options for calling. Within Skype's own offerings, the Business Control Panel provides the tools for a system administrator to handle both the deployment of Skype and the administration of Skype accounts within a business's operations.
OnState is a primary example of the latter. They have built up a call center offering that takes full advantage of both instant messaging chat and voice in dealing with both inbound and outbound calls; they also take advantage of the three founders' combined over sixty years' experience participating in the call center market. Yet, they encountered many opportunities where they had to go back to Skype for assistance since, for one reason or another, Skype's program were insufficient to address business users' requirement. The result is that today OnState offers their customers "one stop shopping" whereby, on acquiring a customer, OnState takes on responsibility for addressing Skype subscription needs, hardware requirements (headsets and handsets, implementation issues and first level technical support.
The Business Control Panel has had its limitations also; the main fear has been to mitigate potential for fraudulent or unauthorized activity through transaction value and volume licensing limits.
As for geographical markets, Skype met a much larger need for communications cost reductions in Europe and Asia than in North America. As a result over 80% of Skype's revenues continue to come from outside the U.S. The two primary needs met in North America are for "Friends and Family" calling outside North America and small businesses who are working to grow internationally - both internally and with their suppliers and customers.
In growing internationally, there has been the challenge of building user bases in widely diverse markets; "free", "easy-to-install" and a whole lot of viral marketing action have introduced significant adoption around the world. But this success has led to more business-oriented challenges in working out termination agreements, establishing effective multi-currency transaction systems (although being an eBay co-unit of PayPal certainly helps), multiple language versions of software (27 at last count) and providing multi-lingual, internationally available technical support. (We'll talk about marketing and more about technical support in future posts in this series.)
We asked Josh about the Skype's approach to the business market:

JS: Skype in the business market. There's more that needs to be done. (you guys are smart, you're asking all the right questions). Platform is a huge opportunity for us; business is another big opportunity for us. About half of the communications market is business; we have a great solution, especially for small-to-medium size businesses. We haven't tailored that solution to businesses very much; we haven't communicated to businesses that we have that solution. In the new organizational design one of the pieces of that will be to build out a business unit focused on small-to-medium size businesses where we'll have some resources available to tailor our product and some sales and marketing resources to work ... I don't think that we'll be directly selling to small-to-medium size businesses but we can work with VAR's to help support them in bringing Skype to businesses.

(Note this interview occurred two weeks prior to last week's announcement of Skype for Asterisk, a program that leverages Digium's Asterisk reseller channel for sales, implementation and ongoing support requirements.)
We then moved on to ask about various geographical markets:
SJ: North America. (Thank God for Oprah!) Skype has become much more a household name this past year (with an acknowledgement to Don Albert, GM North America). What does it take to keep that business going forward in U.S. and Canada and what are the strategies for U.S. and Canada?

JS: We're very aware that the number one way to grow Skype is to build products the users love. That is our first mandate always. Once you have a product users love, we can accelerate it by some smart marketing programs. (By the way if you don't have a product that users love no amount of marketing on earth will save you, right?) So we do have a product that users love and I don't think we have done as much as we could to communicate that.
Oprah is a great example. It is not our intention and people should not expect massive multi-million dollar marketing budgets from Skype. But there are some smart tactical things we can do working together with evangelists like Oprah to build awareness. It's our belief that once you've grown awareness, people will try it; once they try it they'll love it. and the rest takes care of itself. At the Democratic national convention we were quite happy to see many of the national broadcasters using Skype as a way to expand their coverage and you should be looking for more programs like that in the United States in the year to come.

SJ: China is your biggest market?

JS: In terms of total users it's one of our top markets; the answer is yes.

SJ: QQ is still kicking butt in China? What strategy do you have in your existing partnership with Tom?

JS: We have a great partnership with Tom who knows the local market very well. Tom is also a very entrepreneurial, innovative, fast moving company. We're very pleased to be partnering with them; they're the right partner to continue building our presence in China.

SJ: Do you have your own people in Asia?

JS: A couple of people in Asia who work with our partners to make sure they're getting the support they need and also giving us real feedback from the market on what we need to be doing on [our] core platform to be able to support Asia better.

SJ: How about India?

JS: We don't have anyone working in India. We don't have a partnership in India to announce but we are seeing good growth in India but we think it's a terrific market and we are expecting to have more focus on that in 2009
My observation, five months in, [is that] markets where Skype has the most power are markets where you have high broadband connectivity, you have a large ex-pat population, and where the local telephony system is not as efficient as it could be. Many of the developing markets meet that profile so we think we have a huge opportunity in developing markets such as India and it's our intention to focus more on that in the coming year.

SJ: To succeed in the mobile market place, mobile device manufacturers have had to build carrier relationships. What does Skype need to do with either handset manufacturers and/ or carriers to succeed in the mobile market?

JS: I don't think the carriers should be able to dictate what software the users get to use. any company, the smallest startup in the world, if it has really outstanding software ought to be able to take on the whole world and not have to hire 50 people to develop relationships with 300 carriers.

The Bush/McCain economy is good for Skype

The U.S. misery index is up. Unemployment is at a five year high. The US dollar is at a generational low. Home loans are hard to get and usurious if you get them. College is out of reach for millions. Petrol so expensive that people aren't traveling, are rethinking location decisions like where they work and live, how often they visit family, are cutting shopping trips and buying more online.

This is good for Skype adoption in the United States.

Cheap is Skype's gateway drug.

We substitute onlife communication for costly local and long distance travel. Telecommuting, conference calling, and team chats replace hauling your sorry atoms to meetings. 

We reinforce relationships with family and close friends as financial threats loom large. Safety in numbers, strength in tribes, even at a distance.

We look hard at our monthly spending. Compared to PSTN landlines, $5/month for 10,000 minutes in the US & Canada and a SkypeIn number looks like a lifeline. Hundreds of dollars kept in your wallet. Small businesses, also feeling economic pain, are setting up Skype and Vosky PBX-to-Skype gateways to save. Good feelings in bad times can bank loyalty money can't buy.

Will next month's 2008-Q3 numbers support the theory? We'll see.

tags: skype, economic geography, economy, trends, marketing

Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype.

SquawkBox Discusses Skype's Fifth Anniversary

Over the past few months I have been a frequent participant on Alec Saunders' daily SquawkBox conference call where several of those involved in following today's communications and web developments will discuss topics of the day. Subjects for yesterday's call were the impact of the Internet on this years U.S. President campaign and Skype's fifth anniversary today. Participants included Dan York of Voxeo, James Body of Truphone, William Volk of MyNumo (one of the more successful iPhone Apps developers) and Jonathan Jensen amongst others. The Saunderslog post is here.
The Skype discussion commences about half-way through the call. The one universal agreement was that Skype has succeeded because of the user experience. You can build all the communications technology you want but unless people can get all the way through the setup and readily make a call, people will not use it routinely. And the discussion highlights the importance of getting the Skype 4.0 user interface right but starting with some experimentation that challenges all of us to think through how to set up and manage a multi-modal conversation experience.. Some comments from the SquawkBox discussion:

• James Body: participating in a discussion at a smoke-filled bar in London with Nicklas just after Skype launched: "this proprietary thing will never work because it does not use SIP". James then goes on to point out that if Skype had not had the success it has achieved, Truphone may never have been funded to the level they have obtained.
• Alec Saunders: basically it was the first VoIP-based service that "just worked".
• I then discussed my memories of watching the Quarterdeck team develop WebTalk back in 1995 - and how our CEO of the day drove the engineers to make it work on 50MHz (not 50 GHz - a slip of the tongue) Pentium PC's and over 14.4 kbps modems. But the overall infrastructure was just not there to let it become viable as a consumer in the 1996 time frame.Yes, having widely deployed broadband was one major contributor to the timing element that helped achieve Skype's immediate success. (I did have WebTalk running over a 56kbps modem on a 100MHz Pentium but it was challenging to carry on a conversation. Yet a few small businesses did adopt it.)
• William talked about the importance of usability. "Just because it - VoIP - works is not enough. Users are fickle. You will lose a significant number of users at each step where the process of installing and completing a call may fail. The user experience is everything."
• Dan York the security expert amongst us, got into a discussion of how Skype worked when offerings such as NetMeeting and CU CMe just did not get significant traction. Firewall traveral across NAT - a major failing of SIP, the first true high quality wideband codec, and Skype's inherent security are all features that impressed Dan.

But listen to the recording via the link/player on the Saunderslog post to get the full story, especially helpful for Skype employees involved in the Skype 4.0 beta.
And Happy Fifth Anniversary to Skype from all of us on the call! There are many challenges ahead as Skype liquifies communications - we look forward to the next generation of Skype under its new executive team. And thanks to the iotum team and SquawkBox producer Alec Saunders for making such a conversation feasible

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Letter to the Editor - Reconsider Skypecasts

August 27, 2008.

To whom it may concern.

It appears Skype has decided to end all SkypeCast as of September 1, 2008.

Skype we believe is an International Company owned by EBay.

We your clients, and supporters of your company, are devastated by your decision to stop SkypeCasts.

This action, has been a decision that will affect your standing in the industry; simply put it is a terrible decision that affects millions.

Letters are already being sent to the International Press and Television stations and Radio stations.

We your supporters and clients feel very strongly about this terrible decision.

In USA we the people are contacting our Congressman and our Senators, this decision by your company has affected millions of people in this country, and many other countries.

Your supporters feel this action, is one which should be reconsidered by your board of directors and your President and CEO. 

Your Skype published statement, makes a comment, that you are sorry for this inconvenience, that this may cause your clients using SkypeCast.

Surely there must have been an error in judgment in contemplating this action.

Inconvenience is not the description that should have been used; this is a disaster of international importance.

Many students as of this moment are using SkypeCast to teach the skill of English reading and speaking.

We have listed some of the countries from which our students have come to participate in this project.

More than 50 different countries supply students for this particular project.

Algeria, France, Germany, Spain, Columbia, Mexico, Albania, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia, Africa, Finland, Denmark, Morocco, Holland, Australia, Austria, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Albania, Turkey,  Philippines, China, Moldavia, Egypt, Poland, South Korea, Poland, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Brazil, Thailand, Canada, Indonesia, Belgium, Peru, Libya, Vietnam, Hungary, Taiwan, Switzerland, Venezuela, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Qatar, United Kingdom.

Personally as an English Teacher I and other co-teachers have instructed 651 students in a SkypeCast called English Lessons.

Involved in this English Lessons project which started in January 2008 and involved five hours of instruction every day.

Thanks to the dedication of many people, which included a host from Indonesia , teachers from Brazil , Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, China, United Kingdom, Poland, U.S.A., Bavaria, Germany, Greece, Australia.

Our project and the people involved are devastated.

Sincerely

English Lessons   jwhite6787@msn.com

See also:

• Skypecasts home page
• Goodnight Skypecasts, Peter Parkes, 26 August 2008
• Some more on Skypecasts, Peter Parkes, 28 August 2008
• Alternatives to Skypecasts, Jim Courtney, 29 August 2008

tags: skype, skypecasts, skypecasting, skypecast, community

Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype.

Alternatives to Skypecasts

While there has been lots of dismay about the discontinuation of Skypecasts (Skype's blog posts: here and here), it had appeared for the past several months that the service just did not have the robustness to provide the reliability and quality of service that users would expect. Being a free service, it was obviously placing resource demands with zero revenue potential on Skype developer and support personnel that hopefully can be diverted to bringing feature equality to Skype's basic service, whether on Windows, Mac or Linux.
There are alternatives; in fact, this decision provides a unique opportunity for two third party conference calling services:

1. Skype Multi-Party Calling:

For up to 25 participants on a call, Skype has recently expanded its multi-party calling capacity. The caveat here is that the host must use a multi-core Windows PC and a reliable broadband internet connection (preferably cable). Participants can be on any version of Skype or be accessed via SkypeOut. In this case the host must set up the call and call out to all the participants. More details here. A unique feature of Skype's multi-party calling is its ability to show which participant is actually speaking at any given time. But keep in mind Skype really offers multi-party calling, not a full conferencing service.
2. iotum CalliFlower
iotum's CalliFlower has the benefit of no charge other than whatever it costs to make the connection to one of their access points. I often participate in their daily SquawkBox call via my SkypeOut account; the recent availability of SkypeOut CallerID, displaying my mobile phone number when I make a SkypeOut call, has allowed me to participate in these calls within my SkypeOut subscription without even using the provided password for each call. In fact, there are four options for accessing these calls:

1. Truphone VoIP: A PC, a headset and an internet connection puts you one click away from your conference call.
2. Phone: Dial from anywhere in the world to one of our U.S. or French dial-in numbers to get connected.
3. Skype: Call our U.S. dial-in number from within the Skype network, and get high quality audio.
4. Sitofono call back: Enter your phone number and get called back for free in more than 12 countries

SquawkBox participants regularly call in from the U.S., Canada and U.K. but there is really no country-specific limitation The real gem of CalliFlower is the web-based user interface where participants can see who is on the call, raise a hand, enter text on a "wall". The host can record the call for later playback, mute/unmute participants as well as set up the call, invite participants via email and SMS, and put up the subsequent recording.

As an example of building communities, iotum has worked with Alan Hunkin to provide a weekly interview session, CalliFlower Communiques, with notable personalities such as William Shatner. Immediate future guests include Ken Blanchard, author of "Being a One Minute Entrepreneur" and actor Alan Alda discussions his recent memoir "Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself." Recordings of previous sessions are available at the page linked above.
3. HiDef Conferencing
Vapps' HiDef Conferencing (formerly HiSpeedConferencing) provides high definition (HD) voice quality calls for participants accessing via Skype. Their business grade service involves fixed rate monthly hosting subscriptions involving unlimited Skype access, dial-in to specific numbers in several countries and toll-free numbers. Obviously this involves some ongoing expense to the host but their infrastructure supports providing the best possible voice quality, depending on access mode. The host uses their web controls to set up calls, manage call participants as well as record and archive calls.
Looking at the options it appears the best conference experience comes when:

• hosts are able to setup and fully manage the calls, including an open access invitation;
• users can participate through a web-based experience not only via voice but also via chat.

The good news is that Skype provides either free or low cost unlimited access to any of these services. What will be most interesting is to see if iotum and/or Vapps rise to the opportunity here and and is able to provide encouragement to the many communities that were supported by Skypecasts.
Tags: Skype, Skypecast, iotum, CalliFlower, Hi Def Conferencing, CalliFlower Communique, Vapps, multi-party calling, Alan Hunkin

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Midweek Skypeland news roundup

Expressivo text-to-speech reader plug-in for Skype. $49. Comes in female US-English, male and female Polish, and female Romanian.

Kara DioGuardi, new American Idol judge

Howard Greenfield interviewed me for ZDNet Asia on The Talkification of the Web. (Should I trademark "talkification"?)

UAE ISP du still blocks Skype, writes PC Magazine's Midddle and Near East edition. The Emirates has an effective duopoly with Etisalat the other ISP. Both du and Etisalat now block Skype as mandated by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, per Gulfnews.

The Yahoo! Messenger team hosted their first open chat workshop with users, part of a monthly educational Q&A series.

LinkedIn's company directory is up and running. White and yellow pages meet social proximity. Now add talk.

Jaxtr is promoting their low international rates. Using public data, Jaxtr says they are cheaper than Jajah, EQO, Mig33, SkypeOut, Truphone, and Rebtel in calls to the UK, Indonesia, Germany, Canada, Mexico, China, France and Pakistan. Often 10% to 50% less. Not sure how this compares to Skype's global or regional flat rates.

Marc Andreesen funds Qik. Qik streams live video from mobile phones to the web.

Music composers talk with concert performers and audience via Skype video.

Off topic: Kara DioGuardi to judge American Idol. Barack Obama's Daughters Wanted Jonas Brothers, Not Their Dad, Onstage At DNC. And the Red Sox acquire Kotsay from Braves. 

tags: skype, expressivo, uae, du, etisalat, blocking, censorship, privacy, freedom, TRA, yahoo, yahoomessenger, linkedin, whitepages, yellowpages, directories, jaxtr, prices, rates, competition, qik, video, music, education, americanidol, barakobama, jonasbrothers, redsox

Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype.

Blackberry: The Smartphone for Wilderness Survival

Several years ago, while skiing at Whistler, a member of our party broke her leg in the most remote (but still in-bounds) glacier (Blackcomb Glacier) with only one route in and out. Having cell phone access resulted in having the ski patrol on the scene within about five minutes and timely removal from the mountain to the hospital. It was critical that the cell phone rf sensitivity in this somewhat remote location was sufficient to make a call.
The past couple of weekends has found me in Ontario's summer cottage areas north of Toronto where distance, remoteness and low population density can provide significant challenges to a mobile phone's usefulness and service availability in emergencies. With no landline Internet connections available I left my laptop at home and tested the bounds of what I could follow simply using mobile devices. Amongst the issues I encountered were:

• Battery: how long is battery life and how easily can you replace a battery?
• Rf sensitivity: can I make a phone call with weak connectivity (<1 bar)?
• Real time navigation: can I follow my progress in a boat as the boat moves along?

In my case I was traveling with both a Blackberry 8820 and iPhone 3G, each connected to the Rogers GSM 3G/EDGE network. The 8820 could only use EDGE for data but the voice channel was the same for both. My experiences:

• Battery Life: the Blackberry was the clear winner requiring much less frequent charging (if at all) in a 2- to 3-day trip. But Blackberry is reknown for its battery management features; if desired as backup, you can take along charged replacement batteries.
• Rf sensitivity: this one really surprised me but also says a lot about the iPhone 3G connection problems being reported. I was at a location on a small lake 6 km by air southwest of Gravenhurst, Ontario (location of the nearest tower) with less that one bar of reception and attempted to make phone calls. The iPhone came up with a screen announcing that it could not make a voice call while, sitting in the same seat, the Blackberry had no problems making a voice call - all over the same Rogers network via the same Rogers cell tower. Amongst the group I was visiting two other Verizon-enabled Blackberries could make calls through the local equidistant Telus cell tower while another person with an iPhone also could not make calls through the Rogers tower. As further affirmation of the Blackberry's superior rf sensitivity, when I drove into this location, the Blackberry was receiving updated Google Maps data (over EDGE) right up until I reached my destination.
• Real time marine navigation: We also experienced some boat trips on Muskoka Lake, which is laden with many islands, bays and inlets, both large and small. On this popular lake with many cottagers there is good-to-excellent Rogers 3G coverage. Let's just say that on our first trip the boat's driver did not know the exact location of a marina we were seeking out. What I found was that while the satellite view of Google Maps on the Blackberry could provide very helpful location and direction information in real time, Google Maps on the iPhone could only provide occasional "static" information but not effectively track one's progress. On the other hand it has been known that iPhone is not capable of the real time navigation critical to the resolution of our situation. Asking a local cottager got us headed in the right direction towards the location of the marina but having real time navigation in Google Maps made it a significantly easier to reach our destination. As would be expected Google Maps does not provide complete marine navigation information such as depth isobars, underwater rock locations, etc. but, knowing the main channels, it became a critical support tool as we found our way.

My conclusions:

• The 3G connectivity issues being reported for the iPhone probably involve both the rf sensitivity issue I experienced as well as carrier issues. By maintaining internal design control of the Blackberry's rf circuitry, RIM has brought into play 11 years of experience in developing wireless products. Contrary to other reports that attempt to lay the blame for iPhone 3G connectivity problems solely on the networks, the iPhone's device engineering, reportedly using a third party 3G chip, is a contributing issue to the problem. (During my time as a research physicist involving the design of rf detection circuitry, the rf sensitivity issue was a critical factor in detecting ¹³C signals using magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the molecular structure of drugs and other chemical formulations.)
• Real time navigation is just not viable on the iPhone. Pretty Google Maps but if they cannot track your progress in real time, not a big help. Especially when you're lost on a lake with as many islands and inlets as Muskoka Lake. iPhone's GPS can find me the nearest five Tim Hortons locations but combine my boating experience with the repeatedly reported inability of the iPhone to multi-task effectively and you have to come to the conclusion the iPhone is simply lacking in processing speed to perform true on-the-go navigation.
• And on long trips, away from a source for recharging, take along a couple of spare batteries.

Before every iPhone defender jumps on the bandwagon, I appreciate many of the iPhone's features. It's a great device for personal voice communications and and one way information delivery such as browsing activity and even receiving email (via GMail). But, it's not up to the capabilities and standards of the Blackberry line when it comes to needing robust communications and processing horsepower.
Bottom line: everybody worries about 911 access for providing emergency communications. But when you travel into more remote, weakly serviced areas you want the most robust mobile device for maintaining reliably effective voice and data communications when emergencies arise. In this case I want a Blackberry, thank you.
(Note: Nokia N95 testing is yet to occur due to limitations on the number of SIM's immediately available.)
Tags: Blackberry, iPhone, 3G, Rogers, Telus, Verizon, Research in Motion

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Voxeo: A Textbook Case Study for Voice 2.0 and Telecom Partnering

When fellow blogger Dan York joined Voxeo Corporation last October, very few of us in the IP-based communications blogging space had heard of this rapidly growing service provider. Over the next few months, sometimes with Dan's assistance, Voxeo has become a familiar name identified with a self-financed startup, a profitable business and a very large enterprise customer base focused on supporting voice applications through third party development activity. Revenue generation comes solely from their "cloud" hosting and VoIP/SIP communications server software business. Last week, in following up on a couple of press releases, I had the opportunity to interview Voxeo's CEO, Jonathan Taylor, and to learn much more about their success story.
Fundamentally Voxeo provides hosting environments for telephony applications, whether hosted on their in-house server "cloud" or on a customer's premise-based servers. Developers write applications to their Prophecy platform creating XML files and SIP connections that are understood by the Prophecy-enabled servers. The Prophecy 9 client used by developers to create and manage these applications is now available for Mac OS X and Linux in addition to their legacy availability for Windows. Originally Voxeo only offered a hosted service but two years ago, in response to customer demand, they also provided the capability to support customers' premise-based servers. Key elements of their program that have led to their success (and profitability) include:

• No charge for downloading, and use of, their software
• A focus on ease of development and deployment
• Charging customers only when a service is launched and providing business value
• Option to use either Voxeo's hosting "cloud" or customers' premise-based servers (usually based on the overall business case for supporting the application)
• Licensing based on a "per port" or "per minute" business model, as appropriate
• Providing Prophecy as a suite of components for SIP implementations
• A platform based entirely on open standards
• Including solutions for supporting conferencing, voice mail, call recording, speech recognition and auto-attendant requirements
• A strong channel and developer focus recognizing the role of third party professional developers as their key to implementing their enterprise customers' services
• Lowering their customer support requirements through innovation in their software.

Two recent press releases covered:

• Launch of Prophecy 9, providing support for OS X and Linux clients to their platform as well as a new management console that not only reduces the complexity of development and associated deployment costs but also provides increased scalability.
• Acquisition of Beijing, China-based Micromethod, not only complementing Voxeo's Prophecy suite of modules with their SIP-focused products but also providing a base for expanding Voxeo into serving the Asia-Pacific markets.

When I asked Jonathan about representative applications beyond the flexible yet effective IVR applications they can support, the list of several thousand applications includes:

• Intelligent call routing (using their call control features)
• Voice mashups providing access to, say, email or Google Calendar
• Emergency notification services due to weather or business disruption
  
• Anonymous calling services
• Facilitating calling services for children's websites such as Nickelodeon.

Jonathan summed up their application support as providing a "services innovation platform" that operates "at the edge", bypassing any carrier dependence beyond acting as a pipeline for their services. A final key feature is their provision of a highly accurate billing infrastructure, critical to their ability to support both their own invoicing and receivables management as well as their customers'.
Last Wednesday Voxeo issued a third press release discussing some of their business success with revenue growth of 99.7% (no rounding allowed - who would believe 100%, they say), 18 successive profitable quarters and a very high customer retention rate. Not being a public company they do not need to release any detailed financials. But building and supporting a community of 31,000 developers probably says it all.
In conclusion, Voxeo's business represents a practical, successful and profitable implementation of Alec Saunders Voice 2.0 Manifesto, emphasizing that the value-add for voice conversations going forward lies in the applications.
Note 1: Tomorrow morning (August 26) Voxeo CEO Jonathan Taylor will be the guest for Alec Saunders' daily Squawkbox conference call. Dan York provides more details on how to participate. Update: If you missed the call, you can hear the recording posted on SaundersLog.com.
Note 2: Voxeo's hosted "cloud" also supports connectivity to Skype for inbound calls.

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Skype on the Airplane: Chat But No Voice

I'm constantly amazed at how some inconsiderate mobile phone users insist on having their cell phone conversation take priority over social niceties such as paying attention to the cashier at a store checkout, yakking out loud in an airport (or doctor's) waiting room, or worse still, due to the implicit safety issue, holding the phone on the shoulder while trying to drive with her head sideways. Dan York got to listen to one side of a few conversations during his train trip home to New Hampshire from New York yesterday. Basically I consider these people to be inconsiderate and rude.
I also find that over 85% of my Skype activity involves chat; it's unobtrusive, relatively private with respect to people around you and provides a simple, effective and much less annoying means of communicating with remote work colleagues and friends.
So it's no surprise that AirCell, who is installing Internet access on several U.S. airlines' aircraft, is allowing passengers to use Skype for chat but not voice during a flight. I have to go along with their excuse for not allowing voice: "the consideration for passengers who want peace and quiet". My hope is that we never see in-flight (cellular or VoIP) phone use allowed.
However, Andy reports on an experience where Phweet may provide a path for voice conversations using a Flash player. American Airlines passenger and Laptop Magazine reporter Joanna Stern, with whom Andy completed the "in-flight" Phweet call, also comments in her very detailed log of her AirCell in-flight Internet experience:

I couldn’t agree more. I was getting stares right and left in the 5 minutes I was talking to Andy and I don’t blame the passengers of American Airlines at all. Granted I was talking really loudly without a headset, but loud talkers on a plane (and in general) are annoying. The poor girl next to me was trying to sleep. Other than the call, I haven’t bothered her once. Though, she thinks I am a total geek.

On the other hand she was chatting with Aircell CEO Jack Blumenstein via Skype throughout the flight.

As for the the restriction on VoIP he says, “Fundamentally it is a reaction to widespread passenger aversion to the idea of many people talking loudly on flights (as we’ve all often experienced before take-off or while landing).”

So will AirCell figure out a way to avoid VoIP over Flash without cutting off all otherwise acceptable Flash traffic?
(And, as for those "Skyphones/Airphones" that we used to see on aircraft - at some exorbitant cost of several dollars per minute - they got little use and calls were quite brief. In the year I flew over 150,000 kilometers on Air Canada I used them once due to a rerouted landing caused by last minute weather conditions at the destination airport.)

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Personal Technology at the Beijing Olympics

Reports are surfacing that Skype has been playing a significant role for many of the Olympic athletes.
Canadians have the option of watching Olympic activities during 18 hours of the day (from 6:00 p.m. to noon the following day - EDT or GMT-4) over two major networks: CBC and TSN. Canada had a dearth of medal action for the first week - causing a national angst in the mainstream Canadian media. Our two man rowing team came through with a first medal last Saturday morning and the medals have flowed to the point of winning 13 medals over the past four days.

Sunday was a big day for the Men's Eight rowing team; having won gold at Sydney (2000), they had a major letdown by placing fifth at Athens (2004). Sunday that team, with five holdovers from 2004, won gold; it instantly became a very emotional experience for the members. During the subsequent CBC interview (unfortunately web streaming is limited to Canadians), one member mentioned how a pair of roommates had a reputation for spending a lot of time using Skype and email as their "common bond".

Rohit Bhargava, a senior VP at Ogilvy 360, has been blogging at the games on his Influential Marketing Blog. He is in Beijing on behalf of Lenovo who is providing assistance to about 100 athlete bloggers at Voice of the Olympic Games. In the course of following the athletes' blogging activity at the games, he interviewed three of them about their blogging experience. "Along the way in this event and through other conversations I've had with athletes, I picked up on several observations that only an athlete would know." The main outcomes:

• Technology is a big topic of discussion - If you are a tech geek like me, then you probably saw the Fast Company cover article on how technology is changing the Olympics. What you might not realize is just how big of a topic of conversation this is among most athletes.
• Blogs get you interviews - Of the athletes that I spoke to with blogs, they raved about how much media the blog manages to get for them and their sport.
• Skype is the killer app - Lenovo may be the ones providing the iLounge and access to the Internet, but it is Skype that is keeping athletes connected with their families back home.
• Travelling is a pain in the *ss - For many athletes, the gear they need to carry makes life in airports and on the road really tough.

The entire post makes for interesting reading; Olympic athletes (with the exception of Canada's 61-year-old, 9-time Olympian Ian Miller who finally won a silver medal in equestrian) are in the prime demographic of Internet savvy users. Being world travelers to participate in all their competitions has driven them to strongly adopt Internet technology, including Skype, as their primary communications tool.
And a final recommendation: read Rohit's other posts on the Games; they make for an interesting background on how to survive in Beijing during the Games. And he has a most interesting post on how to make your "exclusive" Olympic sponsorship backfire. In the Canadian scene, Visa continues to run an ad about an athlete for whom there were medal expectations and, unfortunately the event got to him - he did not even advance from his event's initial heat.

eBay - Skype Synergy: The Missed Viral Opportunity - Post 2 of 2

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, eBay France and eBay U.K. 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.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Easy Photo Sharing

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

• a user login that is accessible and visible -- note the same screen also shows the day's top auctions
• an eBay search capability for logged-in members
• complete item descriptions with the Tab itself (no need to open a web browser)
• a bid confirmation screen
• real time notification of the upcoming end of an auction
• options for user determined parameters
• as well as access to My eBay
• appeals directly to both buyers and sellers (whereas SkypeMe buttons are targeted at sellers to install on their listings)

To provide a more real time experience (pardon the German but you get the flavor):

Bottom line is that all eBay members can participate interactively in the full eBay auction process within the Skype client, obtain real time information and switch quickly between eBay and Skype activities. Did I mention it also saves on desktop real estate? And, most importantly, it has viral potential.

Merging and integrating acquisitions is not trivial; been there, participated in that! But, aside from generating more revenue for both Skype and eBay, this situation demonstrates: the developers of a product must be passionate about what they are doing. The Pamela team understands both eBay and Skype infrastructure as well as the Skype and eBay user cultures in a way that would take months if not years for an internal synergy between eBay and Skype to develop. (I have had experience with situations where "big" companies thought they could do a better job than a dedicated solution provider on an infrastructure task and eventually came back to the solution provider to get the job done right.) And it did not go unnoticed that this solution has been licensed by the two eBay European subsidiaries whom you highlighted in the analyst conference call Wednesday.

Let me do a calculation associated with monetization: Skype generates $0.38 per registered account per quarter (~$1.52 per year). With 97 million eBay U.S. members that represents a minimum sustainable market size of $148 million for Skype. Now, if one could just raise the revenue per registered account! Or considering the North American Unlimited Plan, at $29.95 per year, the market size to consider booms to over $1.4B!

BTW, PamConsult was participating in the AMD booth demonstrating eBay auctions through an ATI set top box via the Windows Media shell within Windows Vista. Imagine eBay auctions for the SuperBowl championship clothing immediately after the game!

Have a great Weekend-Before-SuperBowl!

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