Weekly reading

Using Skype

Using Skype for Pain Management and Treatment of Chronic Pain. A hands-off therapy works just fine via Skype webcam. Alternative Health Journal.

50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom. It's an awesome list by/for teachers. Teaching Degree.org blog.

Soldiers head to war, Skype their mothers. "I'll Skype as much as I can. But Mom would like me to call every day, all day long, Skype every day, all day long. It doesn't exactly work that way," joked SPC Forney. Capital News 9, Albany, New York.

The World Mind Network advocates Skyping to improve the world. One conversation at a time.

Paris rolls out free Wi-Fi hotspots. The better to Skype with coffee. Click here to find the free hot spots in Paris.

Too Much Information.

"Skype or not to Skype, that is the question. But answering it invokes a larger conundrum: how to perform triage on the communication technologies that seem to multiply like Tribbles — instant messaging, texting, cellphones, softphones, iChat, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter; how to distinguish among those that will truly enhance intimacy, those that result in T.M.I. and those that, though pitching greater connectedness, in fact further disconnect us from the people we love." New York Times Magazine.

Our community

Call for Papers: Digital ID World, September 2009, Las Vegas.

My rambunctious Call for Speakers at the Emerging Communications Amsterdam to be bold and visionary. 

Congratulations to Ken Camp, communications community leader extraordinaire and a heckofa nice guy, for joining the eComm team.

Charge for online news like SkypeOut does for calls: simple, prepaid, microcharges, no risk. So says James Fallows to Atlantic Monthly.

VoSKY PBX-Skype gateways are certified for Mitel PBX switches. Skype trunking to cut costs. This increases VoSKY's distribution.

Live Web, Real Time . . . Call It What You Will, It’s Gonna Take A While To Get It. Mary Hodder calls for better discovery and effective filters in live search. Mary's one of the early social media thought leaders and a pioneer in real time search.

Jajah connected its 1,000,000,000th call. Billionth. Jajah powers the voice parts of services like Yahoo! Voice, eHarmony, Jangl, Plaxo, Joyent, Callwave, Bitwine, iotum and Chumby. Just think: Skype walked away from this business two years' ago.

The Nokia N97 showed up in US stores last week. Did you find Skype preinstalled? Anyone? Anyone? Not due until Q3, but we can hope.

Skype seems to be running OK in Iran, assuming you can get online.

tags: skype, ecomm, vosky, gateway, jajah, n97, nokia, skypeout, pricing

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
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Barack tethered

Have you noticed President Obama is never photographed using a mobile anymore? Here are some pics from The Official White House Photostream on flickr by Pete Souza. 

Given how many hours the President must spend on a phone, is a Bluetooth or other wireless headset out of the question?

tags: barackobama, whitehouse, gov, phone, telephone, telephony, mobile, landline, government

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
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Wishlist: Solve Skype SPIT (Spam over Internet Telephony)

Guest post by Katherine Robinson in response to SkypeIn number used by con artists, Skype Journal, 24 March 2008.

I just got a Skype online number and I love it. I want to use it for both business and personal. But there is no way to opt out of allowing my number to be given out to complete strangers by Skype or some Skype affiliate or provider (21st century telco? Level 3 Communications?) other than to say "only people in my contacts can use my number." Business users to whom I have given the number may not yet be in my contacts —  I don't want them to have problems reaching me, so I am forced to leave my number "open for all takers."

I have already gotten a spam call (voice mail recording — arrived at 5AM! — stating that I am pre-approved for a credit card) and I have only had this number ten days. Another friend of mine who has one also gets spam calls regularly — and in the middle of the night!

I can't agree about support tickets. I think Skype purposely answers them so badly (late, inappropriate, canned responses) as to intentionally discourage people from submitting support requests. I am exhausted — just like they want me to be — from my efforts to get questions answered or fix problems via Skype "support."

Skype's parent company, eBay, is just notorious for not caring what works for their customers and only about what works easiest and cheapest for them. What a shame! I really want to increase my use of Skype and am very wiling to pay for services from them. I just am waiting in hopes that the new Google phone features are managed with a bit more consumer respect.

Thanks again!

Katherine Robinson
Determined But Discouraged Skype User

see also:

• The Skype Journal Evil Genius Award: Sexy SPIM for Skype, March 2008
• Skype Spam, February 2005

tags: skype, spam, telemarketing, demon dialing, customer service, google, ebay inc

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Weekend Reading

Crash witness speaks out via Skype on CNN. TV news continues to pipe Skype video.

Ear Candy makes your Gnome Desktop a little bit smarter. Turns off your music or video when Skype rings, for example. 

NSA offering 'billions' for Skype eavesdrop solution. Hallway talk at the Counter Terror Expo in London.

Skype Growing by 380,000 Users a Day. "The number of its users is growing by the population of Singapore (more than four million) every 12 days and nearly a third of its registered subscribers now use it for business purposes."

Pamela 4.5 shipped Wednesday. The new Call Scheduler and Conference Call Manager look handy. Still the best for recording Skype video calls.

Tip: How to run two Skype 4.0 instances at the same time.

Skype Your Stylist: Cyber Cuts in the New Age. 15 minute previews of your new hair.

Star Trek USB Communicator. Generic USB speakerphone, volume controls, with velcro for mounting.

tags: skype, cnn, video, earcandy, linux, nsa, security, terrorism, stats, statistics, pamela, tip, startrek

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Skype Sex Will Turn Software Hard

Guest post by Dallas journalist Dana Olsen, reprinted with permission from her 2008 column in the UC Santa Barbara Daily Nexus, Issue 57 / Volume 88.

I’ve never been in a long-distance relationship, but from what I’ve observed, it seems like cross-country coupledom is the way to go - especially in the technologically advanced and emotionally independent era we live in. Who needs roses and candlelight when we have webcams, emoticons and the ability to airbrush away our imperfections?

Globalization has swept the business world, and it’s bound to affect all of our personal lives sooner or later. Long-distance relationships are the wave of the future, so hop on the Skype train and ride.

Sometimes, when I’m arguing with my boyfriend about his excessive inebriation or his inability to properly display emotion or various other petty and pointless topics, I compare my relationship to my friends’ long-distance counterparts and the green envy monster rears its ugly head. I’m downright jealous of my friend who has daily Skype sex with his British girlfriend, and I kinda wish it were me instead of my roommate who got to send semi-pornographic photos via airmail to Kenya.

Granted, the long-distance thing can be a deal breaker for certain couples - Turkey Drop, anyone? - but I bet all you overzealous freshmen who broke up with your high school sweethearts over Thanksgiving break would think twice if you knew the sex can actually be better when you’re not sharing the same zip code.

Sure, long-distance sex has the potential to suck, but international intimacy can also blow, if you really put your mind to it. Phone sex is potentially awkward - Wait, where did you say your hand was? - and text sex is almost impossible. But I’m pretty sure webcams, what with their visual design and high speed, were invented to solve both of these problems.

The first thing any long-distance couple needs to pair with their webcams is Skype: It’s free, it’s convenient, and, when used correctly, it’s the best practical-turned-sexual invention since handcuffs. Once you’re all wired and the webcam is set up, your lover feels so close it’s like their wet mouth is right between your legs. Of course, when I say “their” I mean “your,” and when I say “wet mouth” I mean “sweaty hand,” but work with me here - it’s the perfect combo of sex and masturbation.

The beauty of Skype sex, aside from the beautiful alliteration the term lends itself to, is you can pretend your girlfriend is a porn star. Of course, nobody actually wants their girlfriend to star in sex tapes and aid in other dudes’ quests to cum, but who hasn’t fantasized about their woman prancing around onscreen? Think back to seventh grade - the Playboy bunnies were goddesses. Now, your girlfriend is a goddess, and it’s an exclusive peepshow for only your eyes to see. My buddy, whose girlfriend is 6,000 miles and a Skype connection away, said it best: It’s just like a Wednesday night at YouPorn.com, except you get to talk to your favorite video girl afterward.

And it’s not just the boys who reap the benefits of cyber sex. For ladies, the beauty of bringing yourself and your partner to the big O over a webcam is the advance warning implicit in the arrangement. You know how sometimes, you go over to his place with plans to cuddle up and watch “A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila,” but his dirty male brain has something else in mind? In a long-distance relationship, this dilemma is nonexistent, because there is no such thing as surprise Skype sex. You’ll never be caught with extra hair down there you were meaning to shave tomorrow, and you’ll never feel obligated to give a half-hearted blowjob. Right after you two plan the next time you’re gonna meet up on the ‘net, you have the chance to plan the lighting scheme, pick out matching underwear and decide exactly how much eyeliner achieves the elusive balance between lady of the night and girl next door.

Long-distance sex is superior for both genders: It’s the ultimate equalizer. It’s much easier for the ladies to fake an orgasm, and the guys don’t have to cuddle afterward - everyone wins.

If you need me, I’ll be at the airport. I’m flying as far away from my boyfriend as possible… just as long as there’s an Internet connection.

Daily Nexus sex columnist Dana Olsen wonders why there isn’t an emoticon for her “O” face. Photo credit: Kiss Lips by Anyaka.

tags: skype, sex, skypesex, porn, intimacy, video, alliteration, masturbation, nsfw

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did u have skype sex?

I sooo want to use that API.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Tell a love story. Win two webcams.
The POValentine's Day Confession Contest.

Skype for Windows 4.0 Gold: Blog Coverage

Since its launch Tuesday, Skype for Windows 4.0 Gold has received some interesting coverage:

• David Pogue, New York Times: in addition to his column discussed here yesterday, he has produced an amusing video: Skype 4.0: The Cheapskate where a video starring Mr. Cheapskate shows a Skype video session with his daughter, Kim Cheapskate, obviously a student. But it also serves as a humorous introduction to Skype for Windows 4.0's features.
  
• Alec Saunders: Saunderslog.com: Skype 4.0 audio: smooth as SILK:

Perhaps the biggest improvement, though, is audio quality. We all thought that Skype audio was great, right? Skype’s internally developed SILK codec slipped into the final release, despite not having been in prior betas. A wideband codec that delivers the goods at half the bitrate of prior codecs, SILK makes talking on Skype a pure pleasure.

• Tom Keating: Skype Launches 4.0 with Super Duper Weenie Wideband Codec. Images conjured up when a new codec is lauded with reduced network bandwidth. Obviously Tom has his favorite food hangouts.
  
• Update: JK On The Run: Geek Session: Skype 4.0 and the HP Mini 1000 MIE provides a ten minute video recording of Kevin's Skype video call with James Kendrick from a netbook running Windows 7 beta. Not a Skype High Quality video call but still demonstrates a reasonable quality video call, even at full screen (select "HD On" in upper right corner if you go full screen) . Would love to have knows the fps and resolution from the Skype tech specs for the call.
  

Have a good weekend.

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David Pogue, New York Times: Video Chats Overcome Clunkiness

Columnist David Pogue in a New York Times article reviewing Skype 4.0 starts by going back to the AT&T video phone demonstrated at the 1964 New York World's Fair and user experience from then. Not a lot of calls due to technical and psychological issues. He talks about why Skype has been so widely accepted (did he remind us it was "free"?) and why Skype has been a survivor when up against iChat, MSN Messenger, SightSpeed and others.

He goes on to mention several issues that have inhibited video calling in the past but then says:

The video quality still varies when you use Skype. Fast Internet connections and fast computers still work better than slow ones. But if you do have a good setup — wow. With certain Logitech or Philips webcam models, Skype 4.0 can deliver a picture that’s as big and sharp and smooth as a TV picture (30 frames a second, 640 by 480 pixels), with almost no delay.

In my test calls to friends in California, New York and Virginia, we were amazed at what a difference it makes when the delay goes away. (Maybe, for its next trick, Skype can lend its technology to the world’s cellphone carriers.)

He then went on to make calls using iChat, ooVoo and SightSpeed: "None of them matched Skype’s immediacy or video and audio quality." He discusses Skype's new level of audio quality (with the SILK codec) and reduced network bandwidth speed requirement. He mentions some features that he would still like to see and mentions what differentiates services such as SightSpeed. His closing comment places Skype video calling into a historical perspective:

..... Will we one day adjust to the idea of being on camera every time someone calls?

Nah.

In the end, video chatting isn’t a replacement for phone calls, but a supplement to them, a perfect way to check out someone’s new place, check in with distant family and friends or show off a new talent (or baby). They saw the possibilities back in 1964 — they just didn’t realize that we wouldn’t always want to use them.

Go read David's post (free registration may be required); it's an excellent yet objective review of the personal video calling space from the end user perspective. I guess David doesn't watch Oprah; she seems to be using Skype High Quality Video almost daily according to reports from my wife.

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Skype for Windows 4.0 Goes Gold; Improved UI, Audio and Video Performance

Over the past eight months 1.2 million Skype users have participated in the Skype for Windows 4.0 beta program (stage 1, stage 2, stage 3). During this beta period, not only current user feedback was sought but also feedback from new users installing Skype for the first time. The goal was to provide a user interface that was more intuitive while encouraging users to go beyond simply voice calls to experience and use chat and video conversations. Today Skype is announcing the Gold release of Skype 4.0 for Windows. From the download page:

We've built this brand new Skype so you can have the conversations that make a difference to you, every day. It's easy to use, plus step-by-step guides help you get started.

While most of the new features have been revealed during the beta period, Skype's marketing will focus on three key features:

• New user interface; with over 25% of Skype-to-Skype calls involving video this new release has been designed with a focus on improving the video call user experience.
• Improved call quality: Skype 4.0 for Windows incorporates Skype's new SILK codec whose features are discussed in a separate post today. Bottom line is a crisp, crystal clear audio experience, yet only half the network bandwidth of other codecs is required to support a voice call.
• Bandwidth management: a new bandwidth manager has been developed with the goal of improving overall call performance by adapting, in real time, to degraded or low speed network conditions, such as those caused by excessive packet loss and/or jitter.

The new user interface also has taken into account factors that encourage users to explore Skype beyond voice calling. Incorporating beta user feedback Skype has found that the new UI is driving up adoption rates for Instant Messaging, file transfer and video. When you open a contact window launching a voice, chat or video conversation requires a single click on the respective voice ("Call"), chat or video button. The associated text pane tracks not only chat messages but also voice and video call detail information (launch time, end time) as well as file transfer information. And, as in the past with chat, the entire record is all archived on your local PC for future recall.

Other features: You can choose to view your Skype activity in one larger window or in individual "conversation" windows. During a call a drop down menu on the "call audio control bar" provides quick access to making any necessary audio or video settings. Single click buttons allow you to quickly change or add conversation modes to adapt to the context of the conversation. A wizard provides assistance with testing audio and video settings. During their testing they found that these features drove new users to more quickly experience chat and video while there was an increase in usage of these modes by legacy users.

On-the-fly the bandwidth manager can adjust both video and audio transmission by making real time adjustments to parameters such as video resolution, frames-per-second or audio bandwidth. to ensure an ability to maintain a basic level of communication while enduring these conditions. When combined with SILK's reduced network bandwidth requirements, the overall goal is to improve the overall user experience with minimum or no user intervention required.

Two changes;

• The SkypeMe! status button has been removed as a result of its tendency to be used for spamming and other forms of unwanted calls. (Of course you also still have the option to only allow callers in your Contact list to call you.). Along with this Skype has introduced "abuse reporting" which is monitored by Skype personnel for dealing with undesirable calling activity.
• While you can still participate in Public Chat sessions launched or joined from Skype 3.8, there is still no ability to launch or join a Public Chat from Skype 4.0 for Windows. This is my primary complaint about the new user interface. We have had a Skype 4.x Public Chat discussion ongoing since May, 2007; it has provided an interesting dialogue amongst Skype users and Skype personnel, including some feedback on features in Skype 4.0. And it has supported many other informal "water fountain" conversations amongst special interest communities of Skype users. Skype for Windows Product Manager Mike Bartlett claimed yesterday, during an interview, that Skype was reviewing how to embark on "public conversations" in today's messaging world where services such as Twitter and Friend Feed also provide ongoing dialogues. However, Skype Public Chat has its own "space" in terms of user community; it needs to be brought back as soon as possible.

Over the next few weeks, with more experience using Skype 4.0 for Windows we may cover some features in more detail. In the meantime you can download it here. We look forward your feedback in the Comments.

Yesterday Skype went past 16 million concurrent users around 1830 GMT. It will be interesting to monitor both the concurrent user number and Hudson Barton's "real user" indicator as Skype 4.0 for Windows installations grow over the next couple of weeks..

Of course, the best news is that Skype-to-Skype calls (including multi-party calls), chat and video calling remain free. And there are calling plan subscriptions available for low cost calling to landlines worldwide.

From the Release Notes:

• feature: New style when copying and pasting text in an instant message (text quoting)
• featue: Video Call in separate window
• improvement: Skype now creates thumbnails of display pictures
• change: Get more ringtones and custom sounds link removed from options panel
• change: Removed display bandwidth usage option
• change: Dial pad will be opened automatically on call to landlines or mobiles
• change: Increased minimum window size in compact mode

Other Posts:

• Product Manager Mike Bartlett: Skype 4.0 - It's All Yours
  
• Mike Bartlett Discusses Skype 4.0 Beta on Squawk Box
• Skype's videos about the 4.0 beta limited release
• Mike Bartlett Comments on Skype 4.0 User Feedback
• Mike Bartlett on Skype 4.0 Beta 1 Feedback

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Tell your love story, win a pair of webcams

IPEVO and Skype Journal believe in love. So IPEVO is putting up five pairs of their naughty POV webcams in time for Saint Valentine's Day. Share your love story in our POValentines Day Confessions Contest. We'll publish all decency will allow right here on Skype Journal.

All we ask is that it's true, it's your own story, and in your own words. Winners will be selected randomly because, frankly, we thought we'd get into lots of trouble picking the most romantic, sexiest, most embarrassing, best use of a webcam, or funniest confessions.

February is  warming up. What's your love story?

tags: skype, ipevo, pov, webcam, video, love, sex, lust, romance, stories, contest, affection, internet, writing, distance, intimacy, fun

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A Partnership Is Worth Zilch When....

... your partner fails to provide an obvious path to download and install your software.

In early July last year I wrote about the launch of Dell Video Chat, based on a newly announced agreement between Dell and SightSpeed to use SightSpeed's video services. The bottom line was that Dell Video Chat would become available on an expanding range of Dell PC's.What follows is a story about what turns users away from Windows PC's and why Apple is doing so well with its iMac's and MacBooks these days. But it also has to be an embarrassment to Dell.

As background I should say that recently I have watched as two non-tech persons have started up their MacBooks for the first time. Turn it on, asks for your name and contact information, upgrades the software, takes your photograph with the built-in webcam, finds the WiFi, connects to the Internet (and finds other PC's on your LAN). In about 20 to 30 minutes you're up and running. No hassles, no new software to install; it just happens!. And subsequently these people do not come back to me for technical support, especially on security, operating system upgrade and new software installation issues.

This weekend I am helping an acquaintance getting transitioned to a new Dell Vostro 220 desktop PC. Due to one critical business application that only supports a Windows installation this person could not change to a Mac. In the course of starting it up I found there was a webcam embedded onto the monitor and installed the appropriate webcam software. (No, Dell did not pre-install it even though a monitor with embedded webcam was included in the initial order.) Ran a client called Dell Webcam Central. You could take photos or record video while seated in front of the monitor.

Then I noticed in the upper right hand corner an option to "Switch to video chat". Recalling that I had written about Dell Video Chat last summer I clicked on the link. And got a dialogue box stating: "You have not installed the video chat application 'Dell Video Chat'. Do you want to download now?" Clicked on the "Yes" button.

This took me to a Dell web page that asked for my Dell Service Tag. Entered it and ended up on the standard page of driver downloads for the Vostro PC. Looked through the various categories (after identifying my OS as Windows XP) and could not find Dell Video Chat software anywhere. No application downloads. Nothing about it listed in a sidebar on the same page. Nada, Did a search. No luck.

So, at this point, not being sure if I had installed Dell's webcam software properly I installed Skype on this PC and found it recognized my webcam, including its associated microphone, with no problem. Dell had failed to provide any means (let alone a user-friendly means) to download and install the Dell Video Chat software.

Sort of defeats the purpose of having this SightSpeed-Dell agreement and the associated easy access to the relevant software somehow. It actually turned out to be easier for me to download and install Skype (and have ready access to voice and/or chat conversations with the huge Skype user base).

A couple of points made in posts since my initial one about the arrangement between Dell and SightSpeed have happened since last summer:

• Skype hired Scott Durschlag as COO. In a post about CxO's and their persoanl business networks I pointed out that both Scott and Ron Garriques, now Dell's President of Global Consumer Group, had worked together at Motorola.
• Logitech announced it would acquire SightSpeed in late October.

Aside from Dell's obvious quality assurance problem described above, the sceptic in me might ask:

• Did Logitech's acquisition of SightSpeed somehow sour the Dell relationship with SightSpeed
• If it's all but impossible for a somewhat technically savvy person to find and install Dell Video Chat, is there any Dell Video Chat user registered out there with whom a user could have a conversation?
• Has SightSpeed been tracking any metrics on Dell Video Chat adoption?
• Is there an opportunity here for Skype to leverage a Skype executive's previous relationship with a current Dell executive to initiate discussions about having Dell provide Skype with all its PC's?
• Will "Skype Everywhere" include Dell PC users when they want to hold voice, chat and video conversations simply by default? "No biz dev required."

Just wondering .....Where's the value in a Dell partnership? It's all about execution!

In spite of being a 14-year purchaser of Dell PC's, it's one more nail in the Dell/Microsoft coffin as I contemplate a transition to a MacBook for my next laptop purchase.

And, in case anyone was wondering about what Steve Jobs brought to the table at Apple: a discipline within Apple's corporate culture that focuses on a friction-free and overwhelmingly successful user experience. In spite of Steve's current absence that corporate culture is not going away anytime soon.

Phil's Observations:

• Two More Reasons why SightSpeed is good for Logitech
• Why Did Skype lose the Dell account to Logitech

SightSpeed's CEO Peter Csathy:

• Speculation About SightSpeed's Partnership Success -- "How Did They Do It?"

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VP and Dr. Biden shared election night with son via Skype

About 1 minute 40 seconds into this bit on Monday's Oprah show. Asked how it felt to win the election…

Dr. Jill Biden: It was so bittersweet for me just because I was so happy that we had won the election. Our son was in Iraq. Behind the stage we were holding up a computer and we had our bow on -

Vice President Joe Biden: Skype

Dr. Jill Biden: Skype - so he could see us walk out.

tags: skype, events, family, oprah

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Hat tip to Chaim.

What's Wrong With This Picture, Eh?

The U.S. cell phone industry is asking its customers to only text during the inauguration ceremonies tomorrow. From the New York Times:

The largest cellphone carriers, fearful that a communicative citizenry will overwhelm their networks, have taken the unusual step of asking people to limit their phone calls and to delay sending photos. The carriers are also spending millions of dollars to temporarily and substantially upgrade their networks in Washington.

And the article goes on to request that customers delay sending photographs; they warn of delayed text messages and difficulty getting onto the (mobile) Internet.

But then all weekend I have heard CNN wanting to try out some "new technology" asking that as many of their "viewers" as possible send in photographs of "The Moment". so that they can do a mass (Microsoft) Photosynth montage. Is this a recipe for Atlantic seaboard wireless network meltdown at noon Tuesday (EST or GMT-5)?

James Kendrick talks about his problems in San Francisco with AT&T; I experienced similar problems roaming on AT&T in Las Vegas at CES 2009 and in California back in September. At CES this was resolved only by setting my BlackBerry Bold to use just the "2G" network on the advice of an employee of a company who really would know; that tip resulted in a more stable and reliable operation. For those U.S. friends who want to experience a robust, reliable 3G GSM/HSDPA network, I invite you to move to Canada to be on Rogers. Rates may be a bit higher, but it's always there, robust and reliable, in the advertised regions. Best proof: handling SlingPlayer for BlackBerry when driving along the 401 freeway at 100 km/hour.

Finally, first test of Barack Obama's ability to change the U.S. government bureaucracy? His ability (and his resolve) to keep at least one of his two BlackBerries. And to save embarrassment when he next drops his BlackBerry, I would have to recommend an Otterbox Defender case.

Let's hope Barack's team can sort out the U.S. wireless scene to foster robustness and reliability as well as real innovation once again.

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Post-CES blues: Cash crisis shifts power in the consumer electronics supply chain

This is the worst CES in decades, according to some who've been exhibiting that long. Vast sections of the floor were unsold. You could walk without getting crushed. There were few traffic jams. Shorter lines for food. And easy parking. Attendance was down. Those who came left early and spent less.

So I'm looking at all these exhibiting factories, brand name manufacturers, wholesalers, and the retailers shopping for products to put into their sales pipeline.

The retailers are playing it safe, cutting back on the number of SKUs and how much they're ordering. The ones they're buying from are over capacity and starved for cash. That's bad during a credit crisis.

Strapped manufacturers can't count on loans they once got to afford the months of delay between order and payment. Some are giving up equity for working capital. Others are paying higher rates with harsh terms.

Say you're Wal-Mart, sitting on billions in cash. How many of your suppliers will run out of cash before delivering product? Or will be unable to replenish your inventory when their products sell well? You will start to demand cash flow statements from your suppliers. Favored suppliers may get better terms like faster payment or less agonizing returns policies. You may even offer select suppliers bridge or inventory financing loans.

In the post-credit era, those with cash are kings.

Maybe you're Skype. You have hardware partners who make phones with Skype embedded or pre-loaded, webcams and headphones that bundle Skype. Firms like Vosky that build telecom gateways. What can you do in this environment to support those suppliers?

Low hanging fruit:

• Suspend your five-percent-of-retail logo license fee, cut it dramatically, or rebate it through a cooperative advertising program. I talked to name brand headset and webcam vendors who dropped out of the Skype co-brand program because five percent of retail income (10-20% of wholesale) doesn't pay.
• Help manufacturers of high-end gear craft value offerings that still exploit Skype's high quality audio and video.
• Bring gear partners together for joint marketing to retailers. Skype's Wal-Mart model is one approach.
• Share in-depth market research and consumer behavior insights so designers can make products Skype users will buy.
• Remodel your online store and create a process for ongoing innovation in driving the right Skype users at the right time to the right products. Perhaps even making the store more social. And don't forget the department for Skype at Work buyers.

CES 2009 is over. Taxi rides and shoe shines are half of CES 2008. Liquidity trumps innovation in 2009 as sectors consolidate and power changes hands in consumer electronics.

Technorati tags: skype, ces, ces09, wal-mart, walmart, channels, distribution, alliances

Skype giving Journalists access to Gaza Strip

Skype helps reporters flatten the earth and get to subjects around the world. Take Gaza, for example…

Have you seen other Skype reportage from war zones?

Technorati tags: skype, journalism, reporting, israel, gaza, war

bad zeldman

make skype dinner

dog cake

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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Laptop thief, caught by Skype users, sentenced

We reported Utah actor arrested in laptop theft; caught answering Skype video call in July. Michael Birkeland pleaded no-contest to Class A misdemeanor theft charges Wednesday. Full story on the Deseret News.

tags: skype, utah, security

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Weekend reading

What Can Skype Do For Graduate Students? on the The Graduate Student Survival Blog. Save money is the first concern. I chipped in ten more things grad students can do with Skype: #10: Robots.

The Skype survival guide by David Tang of VoSKY Technologies makes the case for Skype trunking, adding Skype gateways to PBXs. 987 Hotels (Prague, Barcelona) uses VoSKY's 9040 Exchange gateway. 

Is Our Internet Future in Danger? InfoWorld's Gruman and Kaneshige say it is, that demand for video is quickly outstripping the world supply of bandwidth. Doc Searls urges America to go Forward with Fiber: An Infrastructure Investment Plan for the New Administration. Doc makes a strong case that we can expand capacity far beyond

Korea's Cyworld virtual community gives up on North America. Culture barriers.

Google Reader Implements Feed Translation. Brilliant. Can't believe Skype still has not built in IM translation like Don Kennedy's Universal Language Real-Time Message Translator. Moka is jumping into this space with its own Moka Chat Skype Plug-in.

Super Mario Galaxy is absolutely brilliant writes Jaanus Kase.

Wish for Skype on Please Fix the iPhone.

Mail-order brides on Skype. hmm.

tags: skype, education, vosky, fiber, bandwidth, cyworld, korea, google, iphone, apple

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The cable connecting Gore to Kerry to Obama

I'd like to make two points.

First, the Democratic party learned grassroots organizing on W's watch. There's an exponential curve moving:

• from nothing in the 2000 Gore/Bush election,
• through substantial roots activity in the 2004 Bush/Kerry campaign,
• to overwhelming in the 2008 Obama/McCain victory.

Second, the elements that made campaigning so lively, engaging, social and meaningful may show up in Obama's governance.

You may not know this about me but my gig before Skype Journal was volunteering on the John Kerry presidential campaign.

Ten of us met in Berkeley a few months after the first Howard Dean meetups in San Francisco's East Bay. We became five thousand full time volunteers over 18 months until election day 2004. Our two-county grassroots operation made more than one million phone calls to swing states. 1,000,000.

We had no control over the candidate and his campaign staff, so we focused on what we could do ourselves. Using an American football analogy, we thought of East Bay Kerry as the ground game and the national campaign as the air game. 

We modeled many of the practices used today in the Obama campaign.

• Communications and coordination
• Local blogs. Feed aggregation. CMS. All with free/cheap technology.
• National event directory. Developed locally, adopted by the campaign, used to drive activity.
• Yahoo mailing lists.
• Focus on organizing, not policy/issues.
• Managing
• Grassroots organizational structures that scaled and split.
• Professional guilds (writers, coders, designers, speakers, lawyers) ran service bureaus for grassroots orgs in swing areas.
• Netroots fundraising.
• Meetups for recruiting volunteers.
• Operations
• Mobile phones for instant phone banks.
• Ambassador roles connecting local groups.
• Involving electeds in roots activities.
• 50 state strategy.
• 58 California county strategy (the fast growing eastern part of the state votes for conservatives).

Lots of peopleware with just a touch of technology to

• speed things up,
• keep costs down,
• push activity out to the edge, and
• help more people make smarter decisions.

We also revealed many problems.

• How grassroots fund themselves without violating campaign finance law (or not).
• Web applications absurdly hard to learn and use.
• National message management vs. local enthusiasm.
• Strangers instead of locals in GOTV efforts.
• The speed and efficiency of offline missing the disconnected and offline.
• Difficulty pairing union efforts with grassroots efforts.
• Inability to activate and motivate stale and tired Democratic Party organizations at the state and local levels.
• Costly voter and geographic data sets that grassroots couldn't afford. Weak geomapping software for precinct walking.

Most of these problems were tackled by the Democratic National Committee in the 2006 races.

The Obama crew really built on those basics, applying four years of advances in

• social media,
• GIS,
• cogsci,
• smarter/mobile phones,
• VoIM (like Skype),
• streaming video,
• agile methods,
• creative commons and open source licensing,
• emergent organization design,
• more reliable and scalable server hosting,
• SMS/texting (thank you American Idol),
• internet sousveillance and surveillance,
• flat rate long distance,
• cheap conference bridges,
• real estate 2.0,
• and all the rest.

Near the end of the 2004 campaign we hoped to bring the Democratic netroots into the new administration.

• Would there be a Chief Blogging Officer (CBO) as part of the white house communications office?
• Would local groups be able to meet and have a say on national policy with a channel not just to their safe congressman but to the cabinet and to the white house policy advisors?
• Would the conversation started in San Francisco's East Bay with 10 people sitting in a coffee shop, ending with 5000 full time volunteers in liberal Berkeley and Oakland and conservative Walnut Creek and Danville, continue into the new year?

We lost then. But what about now, after the Obama-Biden win?

Today, the hundreds of thousands of people who gave up work, family time, and school to volunteer want to continue the experience of being connected civicly with each other and of influencing their nation.

Chris Hughes posted Moving Forward on My.BarackObama on Friday.

Over the past 21 months, millions of individuals have used My.BarackObama to organize their local communities on behalf of Barack Obama.  The scale and size of this community and its work is unprecedented.  Individuals in all 50 states have created more than 35,000 local organizing groups, hosted over 200,000 events, and made millions upon millions of calls to neighbors about this campaign.  There can be no question that these local, grassroots organizations played a critical role in Tuesday's victory.

What has made My.BarackObama unique hasn't been the technology itself, but the people who used the online tools to coordinate offline action.  My.BarackObama has always been focused on using online tools to make real-world connections between people who are hungry to change our politics in this country.

And the site isn't going anywhere.  The online tools in My.BarackObama will live on.  Barack Obama supporters will continue to use the tools to collaborate and interact.  Our victory on Tuesday night has opened the door to change, but it's up to all of us to seize this opportunity to bring it about.

In the coming days and weeks, there will be a great deal more information about where this community will head.  For the moment, let's celebrate this victory and know that the community we've built together is just the beginning.

More than 1400 comments on that thread.

We'll see what the election laws permit. The Obama Administration is already creating tools for change that may become a vital part of the national discourse, a force for good in our little-d democracy.

Competition fuels innovation. The pursuit of power, the struggle to help millions of people climb ladders of engagement and participation in your cause. These are a crucible with real consequences, measurable results, and strict fitness tests. How many lessons can we draw for the private sector, for education and for governance from what politics invents? Let's pay attention and dive in.

tags: skype, politics, campaigning, organizing, roots, grassroots, netroots, barackobama.com, barackobama, change.gov, eastbaykerry, eb4kerry

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FCC puts off rural funding and freemium decision

The Federal Communication Commission scheduled it for election day, but they will not vote to reform intercarrier compensation and rural telephone subsidies as part of the Universal Service Fund (USF). While it may be brought up again, it probably won't be until the new presidential administration appoints new commissioners. Supporters had hoped for a delay to hold hearings in December. 

Some services, such as free conference calling, use loopholes in intercarrier tariffs to pay the bills. So some smaller states became a haven for services free-to-consumers but with costs born by the phone companies of out-of-state callers. These only becomes a problem for bigger carriers when their long distance services are sold at a flat rate while underlying costs vary. Some of the proposed rate reforms would have closed these loopholes. In anticipation of this ruling, companies like Skype partner VAPPS left their freemium model for a subscription model.

The country's largest carriers supported leveling the tariffs, which would have cut off payments to small phone companies supporting about one third of the United States. Opposition to these reforms came from telecom unions, state regulators, rural phone companies and rural ISPs.

Barack Obama expressed support for the USF, for funding rural telecom access, and for expanding the reach of broadband to rural America. The Chairman's decision clearly had nothing to do with today's election. 

tags: skype, policy, election, 2008, regulation, rural, suburban, access, fcc, obama, mccain, presidency, president, us, united states, voters, icc, usf, tariff, demographics, demography, broadband

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115 hours in a Skype call

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

This continues Monty's 24 October 2008 post, Marathon Skype voice call: 66 hours 40 minutes.

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

OK here we go again, longest Skype call experiment part 2 is underway, will I make it past 66 hours 40 mins? Will guthro break 74 hours? 5:26 PM

My friend Jdawg has just gotten upgraded to 12mbps/2mbps on Comcast standard tier wow it's nice! 7:31 PM

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Just waking up now, attempt 2 at longest Skype call with Guthro and I now passed 12 hours, 55 minutes. 6:04 AM

6:04am. Longest Skype call duration experiment part 2 now underway

I said I'd soon make another attempt at what I've come to call the Skype 100-hour challenge. That's the experiment between my friend Adam Guthro, and myself, as well as my friend Joe Quinn, where the goal is to make it to a call duration of at least 100 hours, or at the very least break our previous records. Joe Quinn has the oldest computer in the mix, and so he only made it to about 50 and a half hours or so during the last experiment attempt last week.

I faired slightly better, making it to 66 hours, 40 minutes on a single call, and Guthro finally was the last survivor during the last experiment, as he lasted a total of just under 74 hours total duration. He died when Joe Quinn, the only remaining person connected to him following my sudden drop after 66 hours, 40 minutes, went away a second time.

Well we're at it again, and attempt 2 of the Skype 100 hour challenge is underway as I write this, with all 3 parties still connected. We however have a long way to go to break our records and shoot for that 100 hour goal. Our current call duration stands at 13 hours, 12 minutes.

As we pass significant milestones, I'll keep you updated. You can also follow me on Twitter and get near realtime live updates that way as well. Can we shatter any of our previous records and make it to 100 hours? If anyone can, I hope it'll be Guthro and I, as I doubt Joe Quinn can, lol!

Looks like Jdawg's call dropped already after 15 hours, 2 minutes, don't think his PC is up to this challenge1! 8:14 AM

My Skype 100-hour call duration challenge for me now passed 21 hours as attempt 2 of this challenge continues 2:12 PM

I want a pizza, and I want one now! 3:39 PM

Skype call duration in my experiment now coming up on 25 hours shortly, all is well so far 5:59 PM

almost 27-and-a-half hours of Skype call duration so far 8:31 PM

Stupid Skype! I took another Skype call and somehow ended up hanging up on the experiment call!, even though it was on hold! 10:50 PM

My call duration this time, an unimpressive 29 hours, 34 minutes, 25 seconds, boo! 10:52 PM

Will I ever successfully complete this experiment? 10:53 PM

 

10:56 PM. I hate the escape key!

OK, I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever be able to complete my own experiment! My end of the long duration Skype call has yet again ended suddenly, but this time, it was because I pressed the escape key in Skype to hang up another call I thought didn't hang up, while the long duration call was on hold. I didn't think that would result in the long duration call hanging up, since it was on hold, and not active at the time. I hear the hang up sound, which I thought meant I'd hung up the other Skype call I was trying to hang up. However I guess it had already hung up and I missed it, because when I went to resume the long duration call, it was no longer there! I'd hung up that call instead, just by pressing the escape key, despite the fact that the call was on hold and not active at the time, gurrr piss!

So for me anyway, this experiment attempt ends in disaster after a pitiful 29 hours, 34 minutes, 25 seconds. That didn't even make it to the halfway point toward my all time Skype record which as of now remains at 66 hours, 40 minutes. Yes I hate the Escape key now! lol.
If my end of the experiment had to end without reaching the goal, I would've rather had my internet go away or something, instead of me ending the wrong damn call! Oh well, I'm going to make this work some time!

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Attempting Skype experiment again, I better do well this time! Almost 9.5 hours in now 12:39 PM

Skype call duration 10:36:40, will update when I pass 24 hours as my Skype 100 hour challenge continues. I plan to break records this time! 1:50 PM

Almost 15 hours and 15 minutes on this Skype experiment, while Guthro is around 51 or so hours and climbing. 6:27 PM

Damn I had good tacos tonight for dinner, and Skype call continues, I'm now at 18 hours, 44 minutes, and counting! 9:56 PM

10:15 pm. Happy Halloween to all

I'm again attempting the Skype 100-hour challenge, and this time I'm going to keep my finger well away from the dreaded escape key, lol. I'm currently a bit over 19 hours in, and by the time I wake up tomorrow, I will have passed the 24 hour mark. Updates via my twitter and on here, as we pass major milestones in this experiment. I do believe Guthro's total call duration currently is at 55 hours or close to it. Wish us all luck. Even Jdawg is holding in so far at around 33 hours this attempt. His record to beat is 50-and-a-half hours, my all time Skype record is 66 hours, 40 minutes,

And Guthro needs to break 74 hours to set new records. Can we actually do it? It's looking promising so far, we'll see how it goes.

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Considering waking up, and Skype call duration currently 25 hours, 27 minutes and counting! 4:40 AM

Guthro's portion of our Skype 100-hour challenge now passed 62 hours duration, wow! I'm at 26:02:30 5:15 AM

Looks like Jdawg will break his Skype call duration record of 50 hours, 30 minutes, yay for him! Time for me to break my record now 1:31 PM

I ate too much pizza, and Jdawg's Skype died at 51 hours, 58 minutes in, which is a new call duration record for him. 3:57 PM

I'm still going, currently 36 hours, 45 minutes into my Skype call with Guthro, almost halfway to my 66 hour 40 minute record. 3:58 PM

My Skype duration is at 38 hours 20 minutes, Guthro has set a new Skype record at 74 hours 19 minutes and we continue counting! 5:33 PM

My call duration on Skype as of now, 40 hours, 30 minutes, and still counting 7:43 PM

7:48 pm. My Skype 100 hour challenge continues

As the sounds of Halloween fill the house here, I just wanted to do a quick entry to say that my Skype 100-hour challenge continues at this hour, with my duration currently nearly at 40 hours, 40 minutes.

Jdawg set a new record for himself at a bit under 52 hours, and Guthro who I've called the master, has also broken his old record and currently stands at well over 76 hours of continuous Skype call time, and we're still going.

What will happen over the next 24-48 hours? Follow my twitter for major updates, and this journal will have the major highlights. Have a scary but fun rest of Halloween everyone, and a good weekend to come. 

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

The 100-hour-challenge is continuing, my call duration now: 47:44:00 and climbing, I'll get an updated duration from Guthro after he awakens. 2:57 AM

Guthro's call duration about to hit 84 hours, and ironically, I'm about to hit 48 hours for my call duration. 3:12 AM

My Skype call duration now 53 hours, 25 minutes, and climbing, and Adamguthro should've passed 88 hours by now, wow fun stuff! 8:39 AM

8:42 am. guthro should reach 100 hours of Skype call duration later today

Our Skype 100 hour challenge experiment, as I'm calling it, is continuing
right now, with my call duration currently standing at 53 hours, 32 minutes and climbing. Thanks to Jdawg staying connected to Adamguthro when I accidentally hit the escape key, disconnecting my portion of the call a few days back, Guthro's call duration currently stands at an impressive 88 hours plus, which continues to shatter his previous record of just under 74 hours from our last attempt at the 100 hour challenge.

There are two major milestones that will occur later today. In around 12 hours from now, Guthro should become the first person in our group to break the 100 hour barrier, and soon after, I am hoping to surpass my previous record of 66 hours, 40 minutes.

So assuming things remain as stable as they have been going so far, tonight will be a big night in our long Skype call duration experiment. and tomorrow morning is when we all fall back and daylight saving time ends here in North America. Not sure what that may do to the Skype call duration with 1 AM occurring twice when that happens, Guthro has temporarily disabled daylight saving time change adjustment.

So things are about to get interesting, and you can follow developments in near realtime by checking out my twitter page for updates. Wish us luck, as anything can happen at this point!

I've just passed 54 hours of Skype call duration, and Guthro's passed 90 hours now, wow! 9:13 AM

9:14 am. Correction: Guthro now passed 90 hours in our Skype call!

Guthro just informed me that he's now passed 90 hours Skype call duration, so time's flying by even quicker than I thought, holy wow! I've passed the 54 hour mark on my segment of the call, things still holding up.

Our Skype 100 hour challenge continues with me beginning hour 58, and Guthro now passed 94 hours, we're getting there! 1:17 PM

6:57 pm. we're about to achieve 100 hours of Skype call duration!

We're less than 15 minutes away from Adam Guthro achieving the 100 hour mark in our longest Skype call ever! I didn't think when I first attempted this experiment that we'd even come close to achieving 100 hours, but it's about to happen! My portion of the call currently stands at 63 hours, 48 minutes. I have less than 3 hours to go to beat my all time Skype call duration record of 66 hours and 40 minutes. This is history making at least in the Skype department anyway I do believe!

7:16 pm. We did it, 100 hours and still Skyping!

Just minutes ago, Adam Guthro achieved the 100 hour Skype call duration mark, and Skype is still going! My call duration currently stands at 64 hours, 7 minutes, and the next major milestone will be mine when I pass 66 hours, 40 minutes for my portion of the Skype call. Now the only question that remains is can I make it to 100 hours? Let's hope so! By the way for those that don't believe that Guthro actually did it, here's a picture that proves it! Yeah we're nuts, and proud of it!

8:23 pm. Link to Guthro's story on achieving 100 hours on Skype

For those that wish to digg it, here's Guthro's dig story on hitting the 100 hour mark on a single Skype call.
http://digg.com/software/100_Hour_Skype_Conference_Call

 

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

9:52 am. my final call duration on Skype

OK well with Guthro having reached over 115 hours plus, and with my microphone hitting my escape key, I'd say I had a pretty successful longest Skype call ever. The Skype 100 hour challenge as I called it was met and exceeded, and I did set a new alltime record for myself for a single Skype to Skype call. The final duration was 79 hours, 15 minutes, 43 seconds. I gotta say I am impressed all around, as I did beat my previous record of 66 hours, 40 minutes, and exceeded that by almost 13 hours.

So I think now I'll have a bit more normal call durations, at least for now, lol.

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

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Star Trek : The Continuing Mission : Learning Curve

Just in time for Halloween, Learning Curve is out, the third episode of Star Trek: The Continuing Mission. Written by Andy Tyrer, "on the shakedown cruise of the newly refitted USS Montana, the ship is attacked without provocation by a heavily armed unknown vessel. Captain Edwards and the crew of the Montana must defend themselves and come to grips with 24th century technology or face certain destruction."

Executive Producers Andy Tyrer and Sebastian Prooth use Skype for ST:TCM's production, pulling together this audio adventure with cast and crew from Europe and the Americas.

Download episode 3 (42 minutes, 57MB) or its short trailer for your iPod or mp3 player.

CAST:

Captain Paul Edwards (Tim Renshaw), Commander Darius Locke (Stephen Perkins) Lt. Commander Thomas Plummer (Brian Bonner), Lt. Commander McGuire (Patrick McCray), Lt. Commander Kyle Wilson (Gabriel Diani), Lt. Stephen Knight (Scott Martineck), Ensign Susan Palmer (Etta Devine), Lt. Numi Natukov (Tiffany Tallent), Lt. Meechum (Matt Adams), Telara (Corinne Tandy), Lt. Michaels (Craig Clayton), Alien Leader (Andy Tyrer), Captain Pelmon (Sebastian Prooth), Doctor Richard Plummer (Brian Bonner), Ships Computer Voice (Cheralyn Lambeth).

DIRECTORS: Sebastian Prooth and Patrick McCray
SOUND DESIGNERS: Andy Tyrer and Tim Renshaw
ARTWORK: Andy Tyrer

tags: skype, star trek, sttcm, mptheater, drama, scifi, science fiction, workflow, entertainment, collaboration, commmunication, radio, conferencing, continuing mission

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See also:

• Skype connects cast and crew of Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, November 2007
• The Continuing Mission Launched: Fueled by Skype, January 2008
• Star Trek: The Continuing Mission. Episode 2: Integration, September 2008

P.S. I'd have loved appointment listening, narrowcasting Star Trek: The Continuing Mission episodes in Skypecasts rooms with the built in back channel.

oom pah pah

by David Yack

(is this a good thing?)

(the world is getting smaller)

Monday reading

Gear

Cute. Minoru from Novo 3D stereoscopic webcam, works with Skype. Anthropomorphism intended. They may be competing with IPEVO at the CES I-Stage in Vegas this weekend.

CNET reviews the Sony PSP 3000 (black). Skype inside.

Nokia N810 WiMAX starts shipping in the US. Skype inside.

Business

3 orders a campaign for the new Skypephone S2 from glue London. Glue explains their approach. Online ads "Poke" and "Beard." 

Pike & Fischer predicts US may have 25 million Vonage-like households by 2010.

7300 Family Mart stores are selling Skype credit tokens throughout Japan.

Joonathan Mägi, Skype web front end team lead, now leads Edicy user interface development. More vested Skype alumni finding startup homes. CORRECTION: "web front end team lead", not "UI designer"

Freedom

UK Home Secretary to roll back privacy, blames Internet phone calls like Skype for crippled fight against terrorism

Life

Charleston, West Virginia, high school teacher Skypes her AP English class from home while recovering from injury.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist lists Skype as one of five ways to use your PC to save money.

Slate's Barack Obama & John McCain Crank-Call Generator.

Dan Benjamin explains How to Record a Podcast with People in Multiple Locations. In short, talk on Skype, but record locally and mix together in post-production. Hardware recommendations for podcasters.

Communicating in military families. Skype one option among many.

more sister

by Kurtado
(the power of presence, convenience, affordability, quality to change behavior)

tags: skype, uk, usa, family

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4 generations

by Sean Moran

tags: skype, video, family, recording

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card

"quick poll for realtors; what would you put on your business card other than the required info? skype? twitter? website? blog? AIM? others?" -- Sasha Cannon Farmber

"@sashafarmer blog is a must. I also put skype on the card" - Matthew Rathbun

(wishing moo card still partnered with skype)

tags: skype, business card, calling card, identity

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Star Trek: The Continuing Mission. Episode 2: Integration

TCM Productions uses Skype to connect cast and crew of Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, an independent, fanfic, audio drama. The first episode came out in December. The second episode is out now: Download Part 1, Part 2 or The Master Cut. The Trailer. More to come; check out The Continuing Mission site for interviews with the cast and crew.

tags: skype, star trek, tcm, audio, theater, entertainment, radio, drama, science fiction, scifi, workflow, collaboration, continuing mission, coordination

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Australian PM uses Skype

Kevin Rudd, Australia's 26th Prime Minister, spoke with Rove McManus on Sunday's show. On YouTube: part 1 and part 2.

This brings up one problem with simple IM ID's. You need multiple personae for each user account. For example, one username you can give to friends, another to work colleagues, one for family, another to strangers. 

This tool of faceted identity helps you manage social network overload. By letting you present different aspects of yourself to different publics, you contextualize relationships and shape the stream of your interactions.

Rudd would love to treat people appropriately.

Skype makes that difficult once your contact list rises above Dunbar's Number (~150 people). In Skype, everyone sees the same name, the same presence and mood, the same autobiography, the same sex/gender data, the same contact information. Everyone is managed by the same privacy rules. All 20 million Australians will see the same Kevin Rudd in Skype, even though he may to keep his mobile number hidden from most and convenient to a few.

Today's monolithic identity is baked into Skype. An upgrade would be worth it.

If only so Kev can talk with his daughter without logging in to his office and political Skype accounts.

tags: skype, australia, au, identity

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i looooove being a girl!

took fax and desk phone off the front

good old skype

creepy chick

skype is dead

Uh, in a good way!

free recorder for skype video?

Skype hates me. :(

sibling bonds

freaking

going to malta

my mom nearly cried

peer pressure

now i have a phone number in my parent's home town

old people and aliens

Skype for Daleks

Cyprien Lomas: 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.

Cyprien Lomas is the Director of The Learning Centre in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. I first met Cyprien at the annual Northern Voice blogging conference held in Vancouver.

Skype is the communication application that is most likely to work. It is a star behind the types of firewalls that I encounter in schools and other semi-hostile environments on the road. Skype seems to be able to punch through and connect to the net where other chat apps are unable to.

Skype also promotes that serendipitous contact with long lost friends, relations and enemies - no matter where they have ended up. I love Skype because it is the best tool to connect with people on other continents.

Happy Birthday Skype!

tags: skype, cyprienlomas, stories, life, whatskypemeanstome

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Harry Potter Secrets

world peace and harmony

Michael Bartlett: 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.

Mike Bartlett is Skype's Director of Windows Product Management, working from London.

Having worked at Skype for over 3 years, sometimes you forget the human power of communication. I had a powerful reminder of it a few months ago.

My girlfriend's father moved to Australia last year and she had not seen him since. I gave her a webcam and told her all about video calling. She was sceptical. She thought it would be weird. Well… she was, quite literally, in tears after her first call with him. Her two sisters down in Cornwall (which is on the south coast of England) actually got a broadband subscription just to make video calls after hearing about it.

So I was sitting in their lounge, it was quite late at night (those pesky time zones) and there were the three daughters kneeling on the floor huddled, around the laptop in their dressing gowns having a video conversation with their father and their two half-sisters who were getting ready to go to school in Australia. If you could see the smiles on their faces and hear the laughter, the giggling and the excitement then you'd know how amazing I felt sitting on the sofa watching this, knowing that I've played a part in bringing these emotions to millions of people around the World every day.

I can picture that scene clear as day, and that is what Skype means to me.

tags: skype, whatskypemeanstome, stories, australia

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Zennie on CNN before #DNC08

Skype rulez!

Raving faculty

dad almost found out

Endurance

Ian's parents

Ellen Sander: 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.

Ellen Sander is a screenwriter and music journalist.

Skype has for years been an important connection in my life.

When I lived in China, it was my line to the outside world. Today in business, my colleagues across the U.S. and I can have conference calls with attendees in excess of what our respective telephone services allow.

But most importantly, I can video chat with my two year old grandson, who lives 500 miles away. I heard him say "Gamma" for the first time on Skype. This helps keep our family in touch and together.

I can have total freedom of communication...for free. How wonderful is that? Around the world, or around the corner, Skype keeps me connected. Thank you, Skype.

Happy Birthday!

tags: skype, whatskypemeanstome

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Bruce Wang: 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.

Bruce Wang blogs from Shanghai, China, on content syndication, instant messaging, digital ID, and social media technologies.

Skype is a daily tool I can't live without.

Skype is a perfect way to share ideas with a group of friends instantly,  no matter where they are.

I use it at my office with my colleagues,
with my friends at NPO groups/conference,
with my wife when we live in different cities 3000km away

Thank you Skype and happy birthday!

tags: skype, stories, work, life, whatskypemeanstome

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Alexander Hager: 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.

Alex Hager is a law student and amateur photographer in Vienna, Austria.

Skype helps me to stay in touch with friends and family, no matter where I am, whether I travel or stay at home. Besides enabling me to hear and see loved ones, I use it to practice different language skills.

I still am euphoric about the fact that I can reach my contacts from everywhere, using some Internet café and my thumbdrive or my own laptop, and all of this (nearly) for free. In my eyes, Skype is best when it comes to online community, friendships and family.

Happy birthday, Skype! Go on like this!!

tags: skype, whatskypemeanstome, travel, family, at, austria, wien

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Alex Kazim: 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.

Alex Kazim, former President of Skype, is now CEO of Tokoni, a true life storytelling community.

Skype changed my world.

I was involved in the acquisition of the company and its management. But I worked through Skype. We used it extensively to manage Skype's offices in Tallinn, Luxembourg, London, Stockholm and San Jose. And I lived through Skype. I used it to spend time with my young kids every night, to see with my own eyes how much they changed each and every day as I commuted around the world.

I've since moved on from both Skype and eBay, but it's still very much part of my world. I use it to see my family when I travel. And we use it exclusively for Tokoni, my new startup, connecting our employees in the Bay Area, Seattle and Austin and even our testers in China.

But Skype changed a lot of people's worlds.

I still remember the South African mother who told me how thrilled she was to be able to see her grandkids after her daughter had moved to Australia. I remember coming home one day and having my young daughter look at me and the computer and wonder why I wasn't still in the little box. And I remember the story about how a mission in Africa was able to participate in the funeral of their Father in Atlanta. Live. As if they were there.

Because that's really what Skype is all about. It brings us together. It keeps us connected. Even when we're worlds apart.

tags: skype, tokoni, life, whatskypemeanstome

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Wesley Fryer: 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.

Wesley Fryer is an educator, a digital storyteller, a technologist, and an innovator in bringing the three together. He is an alumnus of AT&T, lives in Oklahoma City, and is completing his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Tech University. Wes started Moving at the Speed of Creativity, his edutech blog, the month before Skype's second birthday in 2005.

Skype is one of the most valuable communication tools I have. Every week I now meet with different educators around the United States, and sometimes in different parts of the world, using Skype. As a co-convener for the free K-12 Online Conference it is impossible to imagine my life without Skype. Skype is the lifeline which connects us as conveners for our weekly meetings as well as many others in our K12Online learning communities.

In addition to these professional uses of Skype, I frequently use it to videochat with my family when I am traveling, and to connect my own children with their grandparents who live in other states.

Skype is one of the most powerful, transformative technology tools I've ever used. I can't imagine living my life and doing my work now without Skype.

tags: skype, whatskypemeanstome, oklahoma, ok, us, edutech, education, k12online, community

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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

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Calley Nye: 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.

Calley Nye is a social media entrepreneur, a viral marketing expert, social media marketing consultant, marketing strategist, and recovering fashion model. Her blog, Silicon Calley, and her twitter stream capture the vibrant Los Angeles tech scene and Calley's adventures in startup life.

Hm, I have to admit that it was hard for me to answer this question. In a short time, Skype has made itself an integral part of my daily life. So I had to think about what my life would be like without it. Only then did I realize how important it has been to me in business, and with my family and friends.

I've only been on Skype for a couple months, since May, I think. The first time I used Skype was when a friend invited me into a chat with several friends. So I downloaded Skype, joined the chat, and met everyone. That chat is what made me start blogging. So, it's easy to say that were it not for Skype, I would not be where I am today.

Skype has been an amazing tool for business, helping me communicate with the community in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, from the comfort of my own home in Los Angeles. In that sense, it has opened me up to many opportunities that would not have been possible otherwise. Similarly, it has proven itself to be an amazing way to stay in touch with my family back in Connecticut. Sometimes I get really homesick, and talking to my family through Skype video makes me feel like I'm not missing so much.

tags: skype, whatskypemeanstome, work, homesick, siliconcalley, calleynye

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Evgeny Gorbarsky: 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.

Evgeny Gorbarsky is my counterpart at Skypeclub.ru, Russia's top, independent, Skype portal.

Skype means a lot in my life these days. Since skypeclub.ru was opened, Skype became not only my job, but the best hobby. It's great that our news and reviews help thousands of Russian Internet users get to know Skype and its potential.

The most pleasant part is to hear thanks from people that now can call their friends in other cities and abroad, from businessmen that can cut phone expenses and implement new means of communication at their enterprises.

I like to watch the development of Skype and watch new gadgets appear.

I like to test any Skype-device in my lab and present the results on my personal blog.

My partners and I do our best to deliver the most popular Skype accessories to the Russian users.

In Russian, Евгений Горбарский says:

Сегодня Skype играет в моей жизни огромную роль. Со времени создания skypeclub.ru, он стал не просто моей работой, но и лучшим  увлечением.

Я рад, что ежедневно наши новости и обзоры помогают тысячам российских пользователей  узнать о программе Skype и всех ее возможностях.

Особенно приятно слышать слова благодарности от людей, которые, благодаря Skype и моей помощи, смогли  свободно общаться  со своими близкими за рубежом или в других городах, от бизнесменов, сэкономивших средства на телефонных звонках и внедривших новые схемы связи на предприятиях.

Мне нравится следить за развитием Skype, за появлением нового интересного оборудования.

Нравится испытывать  Skype устройства в моей лаборатории,  и рассказывать о результатах на страницах личного блога.

Я и мои партнеры постарались сделать все, чтобы российским пользователям стали доступны самые популярные Skype аксессуары со всего мира.

tags: skype, russia, skypeclub, ru

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Dimitry Korolkov: 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.

Dimitry Korolkov works in marketing for Program-Ace LLC, a software house in Kharkiv City, Ukraine.

Skype is an ultimate excitement, which not only erases the borders and brings the whole world touch-close to you, it is an incarnation of the completely new reality of communications in a digital century. Universal, many-sided, friendly and really FUN!!!

For business, Skype opens doors and hearts of customers and partners around the globe and, at the same time, offers an incomparable variety of options and features, which “surprisingly” meet the expectations of users and the market in the most exact way. And sometimes, the product goes ahead of the needs and creates new possibilities.

In two words: Skype ROCKS!!! ;-)

tags: skype, whatskypemeanstome, stories, business

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Dmitrii: 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.

Dmitrii is a psychology student at a Bulgarian university, sells advertising for a British newspaper, and is soon to be a father.

So, for me Skype is something very very special. It is the easiest way to talk with friends. For example, you are working all day and you don't have the possibility to go out with friends, but you are interested in what they are doing and how they are, you use Skype. You talk with them for free, you can see them, it's virtual of course, but it's not a big deal. :)

With Skype we can send and receive everything that you imagine: photos, files, music, film, everything. On Skype you can play some very funny games. In only two days, I was able to send fax by Skype.

And one of the privileges of Skype is that this is the best way to make business, the best program for companies. And nothing can be lost in Skype, because all the chat conversations are written because there is chronology.

tags: skype, whatskypemeanstome, bulgaria, bg, friends, memory

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Howard Wolinsky: 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.  

Howard Wolinsky covered high tech and health care for 26 years from Chicagoland (Barack Obama is his Senator) before writing Skype's U.S. blog.

Back in late 1995, I was new on the tech beat at the Chicago Sun-Times.

I asked to cover the Net because I was tired of the medical beat. My bosses knew I was an early Net adopter so they set me loose to cover the emerging tech. I covered the pre-boom Internet, the dot-com boom and the dot-bomb, and then on to Web 2 and beyond before I left the paper in January.

Voice on the Net was among the technologies that intrigued me back then and does to this day, both personally and as Skype's US blogger.

The problem back in those days was you couldn't easily connect with friends and family. It was a bit like ham radio.

I remember using some early tech and speaking with a guy who claimed to be on a hammock on a Hawaiian beach. Another guy claimed to be in Austria. So they said.

Then, new tech came along, with an interface resembling a cell phone, that enabled you to put your IP address in as a substitute for a phone number.

It was a step in the right direction. But it was hard to get those friends and family on the line unless they were nerds.

There were always problems with sound quality. Echo. Echo. We were still on dial-ups modems in those days.

The big breakthrough came with broadband service. And of course Skype arrived five years ago and changed the game.

Regular audio calling is a great leap forward with Skype, with hi-fi sound quality. You can use cordless Wi-Fi phones so you don't even need your computer on to make a call. And you can make Skype calls over a regular phone; so you don't have to use headsets (though personally I prefer them).

Plus, you can use SkypeOut to connect at reasonable rates with people on old-fashioned phones. Video Calling on Skype will expand horizons further as people become accustomed to seeing the people with whom they are speaking.

Skype, with its low rates, has expanded my world, enabling me to do interviews with sources around the world for international and domestic publications. If I had to pay standard phone rates, I wouldn't be able to afford to do some of the work I do, interviewing people in Europe, Africa, South America, Australia and Asia.

Skype, which on August 29th is five years old, has changed my world — and I hope yours — for the better over the past five years.

The barriers of cost that once made global calling prohibitive are falling in the Skype world.

Thanks to Skype calling and IM, I am in touch with friends and family in Western and Eastern Europe, Australia and the Middle East. While in Peru earlier this summer, I helped new friends call their families back in the US; they were thrilled, grinning ear to ear.

As I rode on a bus to Stonehenge recently, I was chatting on a 3 Skypephone to a friend in Tucson. In London, I talked on the wireless phone to a friend back in Chicago. I hope this will come to the USA, along with other mobile technologies

More changes will be coming as the technology expands and improves.

Happy Fifth Birthday, Skype. Many happy returns.

tags: skype, life, reporting, journalism, What skype means to me, voip, howardwolinsky

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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

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Skype Video Not Dog Ready

This test of Skype's Canine Compatibility shows a confusing user interface. Is a person really there if you can't smell them (an odorama plugin?) or see them? Dogs have red/green blindness and see less detail. Cognitively, can dogs understand a computer monitor as a window to someplace else? Let's watch:

It's been five years (35 years in dog or Internet years). Does Skype have a task force working to strengthen the bonds between pets and their families? Bark-to-speech translation?

tags: skype, dogs, CCI, canine computer interface, pooch, video, audio spatialization, vision, design

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Ben Metcalfe: 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.  

Skype is the text book example of the mixed fortune that can come from using 'closed source' software. By building their own proprietary VoIP protocol, Skype have been able to create a product with practically zero configuration that almost always works, even within the toughest environments (strict firewalls, multi-NAT'd routers, etc). 

However development and innovation has been stifled by the fact that only Skype, and their parent company eBay, can move the product along - no one from the community is really able to bring new direction to the product. With eBay's lack of vision for the product, users have been left with a service that has barely changed in the last two years, and looks unlikely to receive a significant revamp whilst it remains under the auspices of the auction house.

Ben Metcalfe explores the intersections of social media, Web2.0 projects in the enterprise, grassroots media/blogging, online media, platforms & API's, and disruptive technologies. I know Ben from his activity at the Spring 2008 Data Sharing Summit and several DataPortability.org meetings. You may see him speak at SxSW 2009 on Taking Platforms to the Next Level or Puppets, Theatre and the Conflation of ’Successful’ with ‘Popular’.

tags: skype, stories, what skype means to me, open, closed source, ebay, innovation, change, vision

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Bill Vick: 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.

Bill Vick is an authority on finding talent for employers. Bill is a co-author of LinkedIn for Recruiting, wrote Big Billers, and is a sought after speaker in human capital circles.

Skype changed my business and opened up new worlds to me and the many others I network with. A few months ago I started using Skype Video to conduct video interviews with thought leaders in the recruiting, staffing and human resources area. So far I have over 60 interviews posted on my web site and most of those I interviewed had never used Skype video before our interview. Without exception they are all incorporating Skype video into their business model. Some of the videos I recorded have generated thousands of views and are featured at XtremeRecruiting.tv.

tags: skype, stories, what skype means to me, human capital, staffing, recruiting, career, video call, video, interviews, vlog, vlogging, videointerviews, podcasting, jobs, small business

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Andrew Y Ng: 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.  

Andrew Y Ng writes:

I started using Skype when my girlfriend was living in London for a summer, I tried various ways to call her and Skype offered high voice quality, ease of use, and was cost effective. After that I kept using Skype mostly as an IM client as it provides encryption under the hood. And then I discovered the greatness of Skype's group chat feature when a number of friends and forum members at SuperFuture started using it for group and voice chat. I was amazed how I could get to know someone across the globe so well via Skype.

I changed careers and got into the "web 2.0" business and was the VP of Technology of OnMyList.com, I suggested using Skype group chat to collaborate among the 4 people we had in the company. It worked extremely well and it was paramount to our communication. When I joined another startup I got them to use Skype as well for collaboration.

I am now working as a freelance consultant on Ruby on Rails sites, Facbeook, and other social applications, my partner and I communicate exclusively via Skype. We created Dealistic.com while he lives in DC and I am in San Francisco, 70% of the work done together via Skype voice chat and iChat screen sharing. We would have Skype voice chats for over 12 hours and it works flawlessly.

So what Skype means to me? It means staying closer to my closest friends and family, it means saving cost while running my own consulting practice, it means getting things done and collaborating effectively.

tags: skype, stories, life, love, relationships, superfuture, onmylist, collaboration, dealistic, ichat, what skype means to me

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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.