Maren Hogan: What Skype means to me

On the occasion of Skype's fifth birthday, Skype Journal will publish a series on "What Skype Means To Me." You are invited to email your essay or short thoughts to editor@SkypeJournal.com.

Maren K. Hogan is managing partner at HCI, Capital Management, for Humans.

Skype should be called Bridge, although that's not as compelling as the cool name SKYPE. But that's what it is.

It's a bridge from my children to their grandfather in New York, from my husband to his sisters and their families in Minnesota and from me to my clients around the world.

Skype creates connections between people who haven't yet met, forming bonds through facial expressions, shared chats and calls that don't break the bank. Skype also help people identify themselves as current, accessible and friendly, which is a lot for simply signing up through a service!

tags: skype, life, whatskypemeanstome

Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype.

Fons Tuinstra: What Skype means to me

On the occasion of Skype's fifth birthday, Skype Journal will publish a series on "What Skype Means To Me". You are invited to email your essay or short thoughts to editor@SkypeJournal.com.  

Fons Tuinstra is a journalist, Internet entrepreneur, new media advisor and China-consultant in Brasschaat, Shanghai. Fons writes the China Herald and is a principal of the China Speakers Bureau, the leading speakers' agency for Greater China.

On my social networks: In the past months I have used and dumped MSN, Yahoo, QQ, LinkedIn, Seesmic, twhirl and indenti.ca. I'm still on twitter, FriendFeed, facebook, gtalk and use ping.fm. My phone numbers tend to change each six months. The only stable force over the past dynamic years has been Skype. It keeps on humming in the background, while I subscribe to other social networks and related tools. And dump them again, of course.

tags: skype, stories, whatskypemeanstome, china, fonstuinstra, chinaspeakersbureau, socialnetworks, journalism, reporting

Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype.