Unbound Spiral

Brand Innovation practices are a core competence for today’s organizations and a key driver for future success. Michael Schrage: “Tomorrow’s innovators will invest more in playing with prototypes, modeling marketplaces, and simulating scenarios because that will become the best way to create new value and profitably deliver it to customers. Innovative models inspire innovative behavior.”

"Unless we change the way we think and what we value, we will just do the old things more effectively in the future…… Is this enough? Will the future ever really be the same?"

Increasingly the connection between “living the brand promise” and connecting with tomorrow’s markets means every employee must learn to live at least 15 minutes ahead of the brand. The traditionally inwardly focused closed organization is dead. Right now organizations must become more externally centric, more connected, and aware of how to remain that step ahead of the customer. This requires new approaches to prospecting and discovery.

Today storytelling, narratives, and simulations are created to challenge our assumptions and provide the counter-intuitive insights that drive innovation. Truly effective approaches don’t predict the future but envision possible environments that lead to new understandings and better questions. This is the learning from Scenario planning – where planning as prediction is rejected in favor of accelerating learning.

As products and services combine – the experience economy requires a deeper understanding of motivations, interactions and emerging connections. For brands this means telling stories to develop and assess prototypes, and using new objects, and artifacts to tell stories. Thus Brand Innovation revolves around our ability to interrupt and test new ideas in an ongoing simulated strategic conversation.

When Napster enabled the music loving community to begin learning faster than the incumbent recording industry, it was another early warning signal that the rules of the game have changed.

The lesson for organizations innovating their Brands is to accelerate their prospecting and discovery process by connecting their leading edge creative thinkers internally and externally and then sensing and simulating for new opportunities. Prospecting lies at the heart of securing new opportunities. Traditionally organizations relied on consultants to cross the boundaries – “bring the outside-in”. Now the networked world provides a plethora of network and boundary crossing methods (from messenger to Morpheus), yet few of these are targeted or result in accelerated organizational learning.

Brand innovation requires innovative brand networks. Smart companies are consistently building new connections. From knowledge management and external audits to extracting tacit knowledge using panels, learning journeys and facilitated exchanges. Still knowledge only exists in context and in flows. We should all ask: What makes more sense to you? Internally redesigning prototypes and specs or wind tunneling new concepts / experiences through alternate environments created with your leading edge creative thinking network? At New Canoe our proprietary prospecting & discovery practices lead to better brand futures and new sustainable brand innovation practices.

How might the growing interest in linking digital identity, blogging wiki's, RSS feeds etc evolve?  How might the emergent functionalities in these tools benefit our evolution and daily experiences. How will they combine and spiral to augment our collective intelligence? How will they reframe the KM knowledge innovation paradigm? For most companies it's happening more rapidly than they think. 

There's a saying "the future is here  - it is just unevenly distributed" (William Gibson). This couldn't be more true when we start to apply it to emerging lightweight knowledge innovation tools and combine it with what we know about mobility, decentralization, hyperconnectivity, online identity etc. 

Yet using the metaphor "standing in the future" we almost inevitably find ourselves reframing the space we compete in today. 

I facilitated the chart below about three weeks ago before going somewhat silent (at least on my blog) when exploring early ideas for transforming a "systems integration business" into an innovation engine.  As the tools paradigm developed we kept spiraling back to the benefits. Each iteration breaking a new frontier, each new technology providing new functionality.   

It's a WIP (work-in-progress) and making the point that all these technologies are already available they are not just effectively connected yet.  For the most part it will be bloggers reading this.  Some have the curiosity to ask:  Is corporate blogging just noise or part of a greater shift.  What about wiki's and the broader aspects of augmented social networks? Etc. 

For my part I've seen no clear model of where corporate blogging is heading.  Yet I firmly believe that blogs are part of the emerging value creation spiral.  The recent wave on posting on wiki's, forums, corporate blogs reaffirm this interest.  Similarly thoughts keep emerging about creativity and innovaton. The underlying thread is a move from systemic innovation to transformative innovation (about which I will define separately).

A few years ago Tom Stewart wrote "Intellectual Capital" and more recently followed it up with "The Wealth of Knowledge".  I'd suggest if we really think about the chart above -- IC /KC merely set us on a pathway.  The (not new) idea of "Collective Intelligence" is just now beginning to reframe how we think about capital and the types of organizations.  We now know that organizations will increasingly compete through their collaborative networks. While it's not just asking better questions -- it's the capability to capture and harness the hidden ones.  More peer driven, more decentralized; almost certainly. 

It's transforming innovation capital (lets not get hung up on definitions of Capital here) simply because what we are now after is hidden.  It is primarily social and these new tools are helping us to uncover the wealth that was always there, always undisclosed, tacit unless tapped, and too infrequently accessed.  Even a small start would include employee who's thoughts or interests you never before knew, to teams doing collaborative manual building, and spontaneous connections enabled through who we know in trusted networks. 

This is nothing less than the beginning for framing tools and an evolutionary path to a  radical shift in the collective intelligence of teams, communities of practice and organizations.

There could be much more to this post.  A little encouragement and a few questions and I might just get back into writing again. 

A little over a week ago I had the pleasure of listening to Doug Engelbart at the Planetworks conference.  Doug's summed up his life's work for the conference: "As much as possible boost mankinds collective capability for coping with complex urgent problems." 

As he developed his view of the world I realized there were similarities to the chart above  -- originally tracing to conversations I'm in with George Por which started and were furthered in France a few weeks ago.  In Doug's chart the frontier (cloud in mine) is constantly changing.  His concepts which I'm still discovering include... The "Hyperscope", "NIC's" - network improvement communities and "DKR's - dynamic knowledge repositories.  They fit easily within the above. 

One word of caution.  This is a somewhat generic chart.  Organizations wanting to explore this space must develop their own pathways augmenting their current competences and enhancing the culture of their organization.  Then having the "foresight" to take this forward begins with a few small bets or prototypes and a few committed individuals.  The key to motivating individuals to participate is creating the clear need for change and building the excitement for what the future might bring. 

What’s Coming? --- Augmented Social Networks:

“Could the next generation of online communications strengthen civil society by better connecting people to others with whom they share affinities, so they can more effectively exchange information and self-organize? Could such a system help to revitalize democracy in the 21st century? When networked personal computing was first developed, engineers concentrated on extending creativity among individuals and enhancing collaboration between a few. They did not much consider what social interaction among millions of Internet users would actually entail. It was thought that the Net's technical” architecture need not address the issues of "personal identity" and "trust," since those matters tended to take care of themselves.

This is a clip from the Linktank paper posted as part of the Planetwork conference.  Like the Smarter, Simpler, Social paper referred to earlier on this blog here it is worth reading.  For me together they provide a useful entry point into thinking about where we are going.  For me these two papers are further warning indicators that reaffirm my belief that radical innovation is being redefined by those that use ASN related tools, within their organizations, CoP's and simply with their circles (business, professional, social). 

I also just re-read a post from my earlier blogging days on Radical Strategy Innovation. (One that gave me some concern at the time for mouthing off.)  Looking at it today and thinking about the tools I've become more accustomed to using and participating in I believe the key messages still apply.  Five points for Radical Strategy Innovation.

1. First organize your lines of inquiry to be network and community centric.
2. Then collaborate to create compelling friction points that give your community "an innovation voice"!
3. Seek out "hidden" connections - collaborative responsive highly connective networks are important to framing the fullfillment of unarticulated needs.
4. Build-in collaborative community skills into facilitating markets - value creation. 
5. (New / revised) Add to the collective and spiritual values -- without them you will have a system rather than a transformation.

Summary:

In a world of increasing hyperconnectivity, how will augmented social networks impact on innovation? Is your current dogma for Radical Innovation collaborative and spiritual enough to make a meaningful transformation?  How will your communities best be served -- strategically and through what architecture to facilitate the change?

Is the current Social Software meme really just part of something much larger? Will the ideas behind Collective Intelligence shape the future development and direction? Sometimes I look at something and intuitively know there's something relevant but perhaps not ready for transmission or simple to translate into plain english.  I have a suspicion tonight that Britt Blaser, Flemming Funch and Xpertweb may just be an illustration - an early indicator of this style of model. 

From the University of Ottawa and the emerging Collective Intelligence Lab.  The top half of the chart represents our collective Intellectual Capital in the virtual world.  Contrast this with the lower quadrant which more closely represents the collection of structural capital, social capital and process capital found in the physical world. 

I find this model interesting for two reasons. 

• First there is no real mention of financial or customer capital.  This is a real departure and a major shift re "collective". If delight exists... then it is in the top half...and experienced on a higher plain.  
• The second, is more an observation.  The debate around social software continues to focus too often on the physical manifestations rather than the virtual - spriitual elements that enable - augment and benefit real collective intelligence.  

Note the following charts can both be found via the link above. 

This second chart suggests for each pole a two way relationships.  While this looks incredibly complex I believe it could be simplified into a short questionnaire and then provided in a radar format as a development tool.   

One item is certain.  Unless they all interplay together --- spiraling value creation is a pipedream.  There is also an underlying thread in these postings.  Pierre Levy talks about informational capitalism which includes; Cooperative competition Competitive advantage to the inventors of the most cooperative games. Well Xpertweb is a cooperative game.  While contrasting this with conscious consumption controlled by a transparent cybermarkets could bring with it unexpected communism.

This is worth following for: Knowledge Innovation, Strategic Foresight, human tools development and the evolution of our desires.

There is an old joke about how many people it takes to change a light bulb. So.... How many bloggers do you need to change a company? How many newreaders (subscribers in a co) do you need to change information habits?

How do you seed the change? How many should you start training. Who goes in that initial learning to blog team after the blogging briefing... where you said... "Hey that's a great idea!" lets train some bloggers.  How do we start?

Working though newreader solutions was just one thing I wanted to speed up. I can see I'm still getting good input on that score. I wanted better content examples and the capability to answer the "corporate" question. How do we seed the movement? Alternatively, if you are already a blogger in a business how do you determine the tipping point is near? How do you decide that blogging may really be ready to rock your corporate world?

These questions started by following Sharpreader, Feedster, (which provides smart methods to search blogs for information) and Technorati that replenished my memory on particular posts tracing back to posts in late June found again by exploring Marc's post on AOL Journals. Frankly I don't see the direct connection in the article to what I'm writing about here. Still I'm sure AOL will integrate news with both e-mail and IM options (Already begun!). Still something connected and fired some neurons from the above questions to link it to the rules below.

John Patrick reports he's met with "quite a few" senior executives of major corporations in the past week or two "but not one had even heard of blogging. One said, 'blobbing?'..."[Corante: aa Corante on Blogging]

While writing a blog is a whole different area and much is being written about it, i will focus here on how we might get more executives to start reading blogs.  The 'why' is obvious to bloggers - the RSS feed is an amazing tool for aggregating news from sources of your selection and promises to get only better in its width, depth and "user-friendliness".  The benefit - in allowing the reader to stay on the cutting edge of thought and development in his or her area of specialization and interest, due to the real-time online reporting and discussions.  This becomes a more dynamic source, as a result.   The 'how' is the greater challenge, as the 'why' may not be perceived unless experienced first-hand.  [Conversations with Dina]

This reminds me of a rule... 1-9-90 which was recently shared with me, and one other. What I'd call the square root rule. I'd like to know how well these will stand up? Lets set the context and then test them.

RULE ONE 1-9-90. From gaming a variation on the 80/20 type rule. 1% really make it happen in a community being responsible for most of the postings and activity. Group 2 the next 9% are on the active fringe, doing a little more than lurking with infrequent posts and forays. While the final 90% are simply lurkers... along for the ride and information. So the theory goes... that for every person that a Group 1 can convert from Group 2 the expanded community grows by one hundred.

RULE TWO Square Root Rule. To change a company requires the square root of the number of employees involved. So 10 employees can change a company of one hundred, and 32 to change a company of 1000. Clearly it helps to have certain people involved from top to bottom. Still it provides a starting point. In the company of 100 they may not all have to work full time. In the company of 1000 some may have to work full time on the project.

So what might these type of rules mean to blogging and newreaders?

Starting with RULE TWO. In a company of 100 we train 10 people to start blogging. In the larger 1000 person organization we might start by creating a blogging program for some 30 people. In each case these will be enough to change the way information begins flowing. The bloggers will also need some self-help forums and will likely expand this support dimension further. In the 1000 person company that is 3% of the workforce! 

Then applying RULE ONE, we require each blogger to recruit ten subscribers to set them up with a list of internal and external subscriptions to begin.  I'd guess at least 50% internal feeds to begin. The bloggers having done the first training course and begun blogging will now facilitate some simple NewsReader training sessions. No doubt some employees will recruit the same subscribers and others may even resort to some external subscribers. The bloggers will set up an obligation with the subscribers to provide comments to their blogs and they will run some " personal feedback" sessions with their subscribers to build their understanding of what works and what doesn't.

The newsreading subscribers can personalize and add to their feeds at will. They will also have access to the aggregated corporate feed. From an early audit... and discussion some key blogging categories will have been set up and standardized. Now Executives wanting to find out about project X can search their news reader if there is not a direct category for it. A senior exec asking the questions... "What do we know about product X or company y?" (will get not only internal feeds but insights into external feeds that are being watched by employees. Knowing who is tracking what will quickly become more visible from the blog posts.

I'd predict that early subscribers are likely to become bloggers, and the thus it's the exponential impact of the newsreader that will change how information is shared. Those are just the early light bulb moments.

However let's take it one step further.  What happens when rule one is applied to an organization where everyone blogs?  We get the innovative solutions found in beta software from the 9 factor (comments and referrals), and we get the brand commitment factor found in the organizational lurkers.  To put that in context... Every employee is worth 100 advocates for the brand.  Can't think of any businesses that have that sort of reach currently.  Now is that a stretch?

Try SKYPE out. When I've made a few more calls I'll report. If you are thinking about the future of IM, social networks, progressive disclosure, disruptive innovation and thought the founders of Kazaa were smart. This will probably confirm it. Read their Skype discription here. Provides some interesting strategy insights. Wish it would work with my Mac based friends.

Evan caught this:  Skype.  P2P telephony.  From the Dutch developers of FastTrack (the system that powers KaZaA).  In my opinion, this is the first true legitimate application of P2P technology.  Next step:  a pro version with call waiting, voicemail, etc.   I am going to try it out to see if it does provide the quality level claimed.  If you are on, let me know so we can try it out.  Also, I wish they had skins for this so it won't look bad on my desktop (nobody needs an ugly ICQ-like system on their desktop). [John Robb's Weblog]

There's plenty more out there on Skype today. The number of users online has doubled (from my observations) in a day. Currently there are 10049 users online. This is up from the 4500 approx early yesterday....... I noted yesterday. They claim 160000 downloads. So at this point probably close to 10% of the Skype population is staying online.

How many users will they need to have more computing power than the traditional switching networks? With 10000 online now.. Only 5% to 10% are actually staying online. I'd guess we can expect this to increase. If not it suggests consumers are using a particular strategy with the system perhaps wary of being connected P2P all the time. Eg... Use a current IM client turn on and switch to Skype for Voice. From a brand point of view the associations with Kazaa are both good and bad and I'm going to address that separately. Why isn't the % participating higher? Well many will have problems with mics and sound. Others won't have got their buddies on yet. Not everyone does it immediately. Easily fixed (get a headset) see the helpful hints below.

Things that ... make you go hmm

160,000 Skype downloads in 12 days Skype helpful sound tips
Here's a Miss Cleo prediction: Skype is going to be huge. Yesterday I tested (while working on a few technical support issues actually), chatting with several folks on both broadband and dialup and I remain very impressed with the sound quality. Remember, it's still beta software, and thus there are some kinks, but it is catching on fast. Here's a few helpful tips:

Stowe Boyd also reports on his take at Corrante IM I've also received a number of comments and trackback about "Spyware" concerns (any proof anyone?) and comments read the Eula. I've read the Eula - as much as one reads it... What should I be scared of there? Where is Larry Lessig on this? John Robb remains equally enthused.

Seem worthy to note... that from my perspective this is another one of those "blogging accelerates knowledge sharing" examples. I went to IMPlanet this am. Looking to see what they might be advising. Nothing! There is an IM conference in less than a month. Enterprise focus or not I think they should be hustling to "think outside the box". Bloggers are beating the papers on this one! Combined Skype and blogging demonstrates how viral the "knowledge exchange" really is.

My rec... keep watching feedster on this one.

Interesting just tracking Skype quotes... and thinking about the grass-roots activity that is happening.

When VoIP via P2P technology hits a point where you can call friends using a headset, PDA, and Skype software, using a wireless network, existing phone services will feel the financial hurt. I doubt P2P will kill either cellular or landline phone service, but it will certainly shift some dollars from the pockets of businesses that have far too much control over the way we communicate - I can't wait. refer

Me and a friend gave Skype a try and I must say its amasing. He was on a ISDN in South Africa and I was on my ADSL in London. My firewall blocked all incoming connections and it worked a charm. Sound quality was comparable to a phone if not better. I am. [refer]

Ive been seeing stuff about Skype, so I had to check it out- and Im pretty impressed. Its like instant messaging, but with telephone quality voice. Instead of getting pinged with a Gotta second? IM, your computer will ring. You... [refer]

Devo a Mantellini la scoperta di Skype, programmino che ormai da qualche tempo utilizzo con gusto per telefonare via Internet, realizzato dalla ban.. (85 words) [refer]

Dring! Dring! Dring! SKYPE! Des concepteurs de Kazaa. Téléphonie IP et P2P. What kind of impact do you think Skype... [refer]

While Skype founders are probably scrambling with what should be an overnight success, they are running some branding risks and have made some crucial target audience assumptions. Unfortunately, "beta" isn't an excuse. The consumers targeted with this product will ignore the "beta" label. I'm just going to put a few piece into play that suggests Skype must quickly become a marketing-centric organization.

Skype's consumer base is morphing by the hour. Each registration - will impact on the community that uses Skype. Living the Brand "Skype" requires more than the initial wow fun - it works. I will try and illustrate this. I'll be brutal. The founders of Kazaa, (an egocentric pitch if I ever heard one) bring you... That's a techno-centric pitch. Lets face it Kazaa created both the platform for this step and dangers particularly perceptions. Techies will take notice.. while my mother is not interested. Trading music - has a real economic incentive for young people. Kids do it. They can't afford CD's or would in fact rather put their money on other entertainment items. I think however the target for Skype is much broader. It's not 12 year old that are trying it out. Telephone calls have no cost for them. This big bold link to Kazaa is unnecessary. Get rid of it. There's a much bigger idea under it all and the founders must build real sympathy for it.

It begins with "living this brand" There's no marketer on the company list! There are already a number of branding problems. First we have (as too often with tech products) no consumer stories. The closest we get to smiling faces on the main screen are these two mug shots in the company section. Hey great they look like rock stars.... Well no. These photos in the company section are almost scary. They may want to change the world. However, that will require color and a smile. They must appear "pleasant" and "approachable". Some simply manufactured warmth would help. Change these photos quick!. They may work on Hot or Not; they aren't appropriate here.

It's true there is a lot of good word of mouth out there. I've been tracking it. People really seem to get it. So why start kicking at the founders? Simply because the best emerging online community I know for having a "personal" face is Adrian Scott's Ryze. From day one he cared about his friends. This is in stark contrast to the mistakes being made at Friendster. For Skype to be really successful it must be more than technology or "disrupting" the old phone system. It's about welcoming in tomorrow. We are in the age of P2P telephony. How people share in these riches will define the potency of the solution.

So what scares me about this initial beta techno incarnation is I (the consumer/customer) have no way of knowing if these guys care about anything more than the tech or the likely money they are going to make in the future. At the moment it could go either way. I'm talking about how names are filled in! I'm ranting about instructions on filling profiles. Profiles are central to this emerging community. I'm suggesting that the founders make it clear. I have have checked. THE FOUNDERS (full name) ARE UNLISTED! I can't call them. What sort of communications society are they suggesting we support? Are they scared to take calls? For this to really work... everyone has to want to be always on... like the phone system.

Now to be more fair... They won't be able to take millions of calls. Still an old computer with an away message would work. Or even have a PA answer some! Still there are many CEO's that can still list their home number. It's called the phone book. Here we have two founders that may well be able to create a P2P directory of everybody on earth. With some smarter technology it will enable progressive levels of disclosure. The path is fairly clear. So this... PERSONAL DISCLOSURE thing is important. They are not making it easy enough to decide.... what's my name and how do I share details about myself. The assumption is people know how to fill in the form. Actually they don't. Every community has it's approach. Just look at Ryze vs.. Tribe. ort Yahooprofile pages. Unfortunately the only Skype example on the home page lists Skype_lover and Skype_rocks as well as Catherine etc.. It's not funny and may suggest the wrong connotations. Just simply a risk a smart marketer wouldn't take in packaging a product for mass popular consumption. Clean it up quick! Share more thinking about the "design" of the profile. From my perspective some of it seems a little premature. My phone numbers??? Talk to me personally. Tell me how to be "smart", with-it and techno savvy.

This also reflects an issue of understanding who the target audience is. It's not those that change their IM name everyday on AIM. It is not your average Kazaa user. For a phone system to work we need some naming consistency. This is going to be a real interesting emergent phenomena. It is no wonder the Eula says... we can't handle emergency calls. By the way "Operator" is taken and is not listed. In some fun and jest I called up the top Brands
and started trying to register them as my number. Coca-Cola, Microsoft, down to number 7 Disney... which registered for me. So looks like we are going to have a pretty interesting phone book. Should I auction "Disney" on eBay? Ebay users will adopt this too! This won't be so problematic if we realized and accepted that 1-800 calls are made all the time. If you are a company... why not let your operators use this system. (ah a new backend business for someone) . However I was thinking target audience. Who's likely to move first? Who will be the initial users?

Bloggers are a pretty good bet. I liked John Robb's comment suggestion today. I just don't know how to do it. Internationally connected by words... often too expensive to talk. Ryze is another community where "phone costs" limit exchanges. So it is not only communicate P2P Telephony... which seems like maybe just a new thing... go global with the thought. International calls are free! It's more where this is placed on the home page and the story around it. In America long distance state to state is increasingly just a fixed fee of $15 or thereabouts every month. It's not a motivator. International calls still add up. Then there is the college student on a mobile. Wants to protect some minutes. Skype will be all though the college dorms. The College students will get their parents on it. Something they could never do with Kazaa (with rare exceptions). "Hey Mom! Here's a telephone for your PC!" The aged can then push youth back to some sense of talking....

Now these older users are more concerned. P2P is bad. It says so in the news and with the RIAA. (Get the Kazaa references off the home page!). The second part of the culture equation is the culture of abundance and how all of us collectively can create a better communication system. Setting the stage for this is the personal guarantee from the founders that they've designed the system so I don't have to fear leaving it on all the time. It won't slow down my computer and gee... you know Seti at home we will work it so we only use latent capacity. Hey Seti is good right! They could do even more if they started commiting to a long-term "world communications" behavior charter.

Which brings me to the color choice. Purple --- a mixture of red and blue. Strongly associated with relationships and identity. Purple is the colour of magic and deep emotions. This seems like an interesting color direction to go down. So let's use it to talk the magical relationships. The elimination of cost barriers to good conversation. It's first iteration... fairly naked by comparison to other IM clients. Now the downside...Too much purple is probably immature or too erotic. It's a great color for school girls - it's not in this rendition that the color for the worlds next phone company. And that is where the branding can get really interesting. It's P2P telephony... and Skype is really after magic seamless connections, and for that it's perfect. At least I can see ways to grow it.

Then there is the name. How is it pronounced? It may not be clear to everyone. Let us know... in the story on the site where it came from, what it should inspire.

Then tell me the story of why it will overturn IM. Why ringing is more natural? Why this solution is both less intrusive and more efficient! Jeez I'm not going to write that for you too. What you need is a marketer who realizes that this is the next eBay. You need someone focussing on the message, holding the business true to a set of core values that rest round people, relationships and innovative communications. It was easy for people to go from Napster to Kazaa. It will be easy to get people to go from IM to Skype. Thankfully IM is never mentioned on the home page. At the core... Skype is not beholden to the big company, but the emerging community.

Now my final little freebee!. The receiver on the phone the hang-up/pickup should always on top. As Skype is not IM the little headset icons shold be at the top. Plus the name... area to put one in and dial.. just under that. The file etc. and tabs all at the bottom! Afterall it is about turning the world upside down. Why should I scan to the bottom of an IM looking box to see that it's phone centric! Come on! Plus... on the useability stakes.. it is either minimised or in the bottom right of the screen.

I could go on... I must stop.

Ah emerging words and phrases. I see 12349 Skype users online now and just took up TDavid on his Call Me invite. He's put into practice what John Robb said you could do yesterday. Now I understand just how simple this is to do!

I may just find the Skype logo and put it on my main blog page later. For now you can "Click n Call" Me on Skype

Several searches to this blog for Skype information, not to mention when I first looked at Skype this morning I saw 11,000+ users online which was the most I've seen online to date. And as of the time I'm writing this there are 11,507...."
skypers (pronunciation: sky-purse) - people who call you the moment before you get out of your chair to do something else. A skype equivalent of eBay snipers. [TDavid]

Someone needs to wire this up with my mobile phone. I mean *now* not some day in the future. Here's how I see it. First a native Symbian app on the phone accesses the Bluetooth connection to a PC and streams voice each way. At 1650 bytes/sec for GSM-encoded voice, Bluetooth has more than enough bandwidth to handle it. This would allow your Symbian device to act, believe it or not, as a phone. On the PC side, a Bluetooth server sits and acts as a gateway between the serial port and the P2P voice app.

Now - I don't want the client to just be a dumb headset with a mike. I want to be able to start the app up, get access to my normal address book, choose someone I know has the same setup, and to attempt to make the call via BT. Now if the call doesn't go through, I want it to swap to a normal GSM connection and then dial that one.

I just sent a note to a number of friends and colleagues around the world. Earlier I also put a note on Ryze and also today to put a Skype link on my blog. Talking to more readers might nurture this blog along. Don't know if it works yet. Distance, locations and cost simply get in the way. I'm hoping by tomorrow I'll have a few more on my friends list. It will add to Skype's utility factor and make it more valuable. So I'm doing my thing today to spread the virus.

I also connected with Mum & Dad in New Zealand for the last hour. We had a magic chat as if they were in the next room although I’m in San Francisco! I wonder if Dad is currently the oldest user (75) on Skype? My mother couldn't’ believe the sound quality and wanted to dial me right back. Up till today she didn't believe in this Internet thing and all the e-mail. From my perspective - we may have turned a corner.

I've also see additional pointers that starting off with no friends presents a difficulty. Mitch makes a good point about useablity in his post. It is in the little details. From how we use profiles to our first screens. Some committed souls (not me) would man a help desk I'm sure. Could be easily done via the Skpye website.

UI insults Designing application interfaces that make people want to immediately jump in and use the software is an art. I've just downloaded Skype, the hot-right-now peer-to-peer voice over IP application. After installing, the first actual message I... [Ratcliffe Blog]

3-4 years ago we were asking the VoIP providers to create something like this for QuikkTUTOR. They never really got it. A few years after that for another venture we were looking for the same thing but with video as well. There were a few players but... [Tims Blog]

See also a list of known Skype problems Don't look too serious so far.

Finally I'd still like to know the pronunciation. Rhyms with hype? Or more like this morning - when I heard - like sniper. Is it just me or is it really like SKIP? In other words when a SKYPER is done he or she has to SKYPE (Skip)?

It's all really intriguing. This question of whether and how we should codify relationships with the majority of effort around centralized data solutions, negotiating standards and adoption. I'm thinking there is another route.

Right now Skype has 18869 users online with 240000 downloads. That is more than any of these social networking tools Ryze, Ecademy, Linkedin, Tribe etc.. have ever had on concurrently. The founders negotiated no standards they are simply providing a phone system that works. See Cnet and the quote below.

Let's tie the interesting discussion on relationships and social networking software that's emerged over the weekend to whats happening with Skype. The discussion started with Liz Lawley here and then a great perspective by Danah Boyd here and Matt Mower adds more here. Summed up in Marc's blog as well where he says.

However if Matt knew what it took us to even broach the subject of multi-granularity to the RDF camp and get it expressed in FOAF, he'd know that you gotta walk before you can run. Since everyone's concept of 'friends' is this binary yes or no sort of attitude, it has repercussions across all sorts of issues: user experience, profile interchange, the semantic web, ecommerce and multimedia personalization.

Whether it be for a foundation of federated social networks, enhancing one's digital lifestyle aggregation or as a basis multimedia personalization - putting identity into CONTEXT is what it's all about. Identity doesn't work as a stand alone concept - putting folks into a frenzy about privacy and security. It only works - when it's put into some real-world context.

I fully expect people to leave AIM, Yahoo and MSN for Skype. Skype's already carrying a profile. It could be made significantly richer and I'm sure progressive disclosure could be enabled quickly. My question is what access do I want to enable. My buddies and buddies buddies? Those that have read or linked to my blog? Sure! The doctor's office, dentist etc. Yep. Then those that perhaps I don't know but are prepared to provide a verified profile, including those verified to contain no adult content. Concurrently with these lists we have an emerging phone system that may be linked to our knowledge assets. Why can't Google and Technorati be linked to Skype? If Technorati can search Skype blog urls and match with owner names... then we would accelerate exchanges. It could easily be made smart (online or offline) and provide a notification!

Thus blogging / knowledge assets would also have a Skype contact number capability and whether they could be reached now or if they are offline you could offer a notification service perhaps even using Skype that so’n so is now online. Potentially you could make this a Technorati call. You become the call forwarder thus brokering the intro. Ie this person has linked to your blog and is available to talk to you. Similarly when I send a trackback pin, should I have an option to ping Technorati that I'd be willing to talk to the pinged author? There's a lot that could be done here. I imagine Feedster too could start searching online Skype users and link back to retrieved postings.

Similarly I'd like someone to tell me quickly how I add an additional input section to my comments like the e-mail address that enables a Skype callback. Be a lot easier to thank people that way!

Kazaa co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom have a new target: the telephone industry. They've launched Skype, which they claim is the first Internet phone service to use peer-to-peer software. In just its first week of availability, 60,000 people downloaded the free Skype software. Other voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, such as Vonage or Free World Dialup (FWD), needed several months to attract the same level of interest. Tech News - CNET.com

Separately, where there has been some negative blogging around the Eula and possible future charges keep the following in mind. First it is now proven and could be duplicated. Second this is a global phenomena and any charges will have to work accordingly. Lastly, real disruptive change happens when the cost factor means the new product is 10 times cheaper. That can only happen if everyone get online. Pressure your friends and I bet more than a few new businesses emerge.

A recent comment on my blog asked why the hype about Skype? "Aside from quality, why is everyone going crazy over Skype. I have used yahoo, netmeeting, and dialpad with success." I've tried them all too. What's inspired me to keep plugging away and digging deeper on Skype is it's base architecture. All the other systems use some form of centralized directory. Centralized directories create control and incur costs. Decentralized directory systems and input systems appear to create new markets. eBay never decided what should be auctioned, only how to auction it. eBay facilitates connectivity between buyer and sellers - flow and thus trade. I suspect if Skype or an open source substitute comes along it too will facilitate connectivity and create new markets around new very low cost voice exchanges.

If nothing else Skype is changing perspective on VoIP. Today I see 26488 users up +40% from the 18869 I saw yesterday about the same time. A good part of my practice has been scenarios for the last few years. While Skype should not be "news" to telecoms, MS or Yahoo for it's potential. I'd like to know how many have really thought it through and if even aware. Then what action and scenarios are they using to challenge their strategic thinking. Will US Telecoms be the next RIAA?

This link below to a comment sums up why it sounds good to me. It also suggests a solution is required for directory security. Can someone track this down and verify one way or the other? True or False?

An interesting editorial, but you might be wrong. My take on Skype is that it is using P2P technologies for the "white pages" portion of the VoIP network, not just in peers communicating directly. Super-peers store portions of these white-pages. Just as super-peers in Kazaa store indexes to music files stored on other peer machines, these super-peers store indexes to the phone numbers of other peers. They aren't clear if they are using this approach, but it's my take when they say "the network works just like Kazaa". This is also an unsecure approach, which is probably why they aren't publicizing it in detail. These super-peers could "lie" and reroute calls to the wrong peer, just as super-peers in Kazaa can "lie" about what music files are stored where. When you tell the system to find the phone number for 510-938-2222, it probably actually initiates a "search" on the network of super-peers to resolve to the actual peer that has this number, just as it would "search" for madonna.mp3.

This is an important approach, by the way, because if we don't need to maintain massive white pages servers then we can significantly reduce the capital needed to build such a network. In fact, we can reduce it down to such a marginal cost that businesses aren't needed to build these networks at all. The network, including the white pages, self-organizes out of the peers themselves. This network can then be used to build VoIP apps, virtual hard-drives, etc. I have been working on an open-source project named P2P Sockets that is attempting to achieve this; check it out at p2psockets.jxta.org. One significant issue that needs to be solved before this approach is tenable is that these white pages need to be secure even though they are also decentralized and human-friendly.
Comment at Rebels Without Cause

I don't agree, Skype is a one at a time (currently one to one) communication mechanism. You can only talk to one person at a time, and whilst you're in that conversation you're out of communication with everyone else, even if they develop an answerphone system, you'll still have to listen to each message. Speech is a very slow medium of communication, and it requires full attention. You can't talk on skype whilst in your office, or in the middle of cooking a meal, or doing any other task that takes you away from your computer momentarily. (I have a bluetooth headset which solves some of the problems - but popping to the toilet, or to the door, or somewhere out of bluetooth range is still impossible)
refer Jibbering Musings.for more

CNet.  State regulators attempt to control VoIP phone services (Vonage).   Here is a more informative bit of analysis from Jeff Pulver.  LOL.  Let them try that with Skype. [refer J Robb]

So, you can Skype me TDavid of www.makeyougohmm.com answers my request for a Skype me link. Heres his explanation and the HTML tag and heres my Skype me link. Youll need to download and install Skype. On the this looks like a viral winner... [refer Ratcliffe]

Plausible scenario on the impact of P2P on the Entertainment Industry and Future of Media. What do you think?

Hardball assessment of the future of media

Many people have predicted that peer-to-peer file-sharing will change the face of media, but this paper by Scott Jensen is the most thoroughgoing research I've seen into the commercial and artistic effects that peer-to-peer can potentially lead to. The paper is bold and futuristic, which means there are plenty of places the path it lays out could be sidetracked, but I think it's important reading. It makes me a little afraid to work for an old-style publication company, even one as innovative as O'Reilly & Associates.

Last night there was a strong case put for "branding" as part of winning strategy for building business around Social Networks. We know it's critical. The imaginative fusion of personality and productivity create great brands. Then I discovered Abe's post on the "The Idiot Savant - Friendster Triumphant" and Marc's comments. It reinforced for me the strong "personality and polarlization that the founders of Skype have already provoked. It's getting press and reminders:

Allan Karl and Dina Mehta with more comments on branding:

Success can go to one's head. As such, fundamental strategic and tactical common sensory (sic) goes out the window. We saw what happened to the intense accelerated growth with Friendster. And it appears Skype is the latest social network wildfire. But out of control it's just a fad. Reigned in and focused it could be a solid brand, build equity and offer founders and users intense value. This isn't revolutionary. But it's certainly evolutionary.
[for the sake of clarity - The Digital Tavern]

With the ever growing number of social networks, it is likely to be the more human brand personalities that define the relationship users will have with each, the strength of loyalty and pointers to differentiate one network from another. Conversations with Dina

Similarly the product itself is creative. It's not IM. It is IM. No it's not. etc.... So via Dina's blog Forget Work, IM Is for Scheming, Flirting, Gossip. Another way of looking at the clear the pragmatic use for IM are made on Ulises blog. He asks me:

Does it have to be either/or? We are talking about two different technologies with two distinct sets of characteristics, and potentially two different uses. Expecting that people will leave AIM, Yahoo and MSN for Skype is overlooking some of the features that text-based IM affords that voice-based communication doesn't." I d e a n t: Skype: Voice vs. Text

This is quick mind dump of the logic. At best a hypothesis. Still suspend disbelief and consider versus everything from MS to SBC whether Skype or a similar product for the consumer market will radically change the rules. Hey lets make it up as we go!

Are you a Trillian user just trying to keep your chat consolidated? At the beginning of the phone system there were different companies. Those on one network couldn't connect with another. Well looks like Yahoo is making a fatal blunder following Microsoft's lead to close out third party clients. See the CNET article found via this blog.

For all the aggravation brought by incumbent telcos, the thought that organizations such as Yahoo or MSN could replace them to provide our basic communication infrastructure is even scarier. Heres a simple action plan to send a clear message that were. [Oliver Travers]

This closed door mentality is just one reason 525000 people have downloaded Skype to date. I've seen 34000 so far today online (up from 32000 yesterday). I keep saying it beats MS and Yahoo for voice quality while still beta. I'm not wedded to any of the above IM clients for I'm not 11 years old (my daughter will be harder to shift from AIM) and don't particularly like multiple text conversations. However while I failed to really convert my parents and many friends to IM chat, I know Skype provides another opportunity. Now we are talking phones something they understand. For them a Yahoo upgrade or lock-out is is just a bore.

Why is it a strategic blunder? Yahoo is looking at their "former" competitors and is unwilling to think forward. I don't think they ever had a strategy for "Your Computer is Ringing!" Now what if ringing and entertainment file sharing are brought together via a plug-in strategy? Sharing music (access to anothers Hotlist) is just an individual hack. It's the card that won't be played for a little longer and it won't tie to Kazaa.

Trillian's blunder is also just the type of strategy I was warned and advised about yesterday. Tying any business to Skype at this early stage is a "test" to get learning for an emergent environment. It may pay off, real big time. Then again Skype's business model is not declared. There is risk there. The strategy questions continuue - who, how and what will shape the value equation in the P2P telephony market?

I just took a Skype call from an "unknown" for research purposes. He was a 16 year old German lad who lives in Bavaria. He's finding Skyping pretty cool. His key objective was to practice his English --- (almost perfect) and so he's reaching out to America and Japan wanting to share culture and just talk English to other people. Simply curious.. probably didn't expect to get someone older than his father. So I did my questioning thing. He was checking it out. Hoping to get his AFS exchange girlfriend who's in San Diego on the system. Poor guy, he's getting beach shots and missing out.

Some might complain --- it was really a spam call. I didn't have to answer it and I could have rejected it. There was no profile - name or anything. Yet this perfectly illustrates the type opportunities that may emerge around Skype type technologies. This example for language, meeting people and cultural exchange. Who will create a safe haven for this kid to have his conversations? My son is a Spanish 3 sophomore. I know his Spanish isn't at the same level and yet who does he have to talk to? Who could buddy him and vice-versa. Skype potentially brings a real language lesson immediately into the home.

Yet another option for those social networking profiles. We've had PenPals now maybe it is TalkPals. However, Skype isn't going to get our profiles. They are probably already maxed out for data unless they think real carefully and provide a better brand charter. We are more likely to broker or spread our profiles. Reid (Linkedin)used the term "graphs" which I interpret as: Business, Personal, Professional, Household, Family, etc. The opportunity exists for a collection of permanently on Profiles --- Skypepages --- which will then list our other "trusted" directory and networking suppliers. A certain level of access and sharing will be required to dig deeper or get the number to connect. List on SkypePages for free and your listing on Skype will no longer be public but smart. Skypepages will only list name, zipcode or telephone number publically. Think how classmates matches people Skypepages can frequently change log-in addresses automatically updating your directory contacts just like Plaxo adding additional security. (Would this work?) The linkage engine is an initial prize. SkypePages can' be owned by Skype. So how does Skypepages make money. For a small fee it will link you to your other networks. Enabling them to provide the access you have contracted them to provide while retaining the knowledge that should you fire them and move your data or recast your profile elsewhere your "number" for calls always remains secure. Even SkypePages can't know it. Note: SkypePages doesn't need to know your e-mail address however it may need to collect your credit card. SkypePages can create the market for trusted social networks.

I believe this strategy is attractive as the name aggregator doesn't have to act as a universal trust broker only facilitate the market for trusted exchanges.

Anyone want to help build it? Any advice? The theory is Skype has to go after connecting to landlines and mobiles. That is where they make money. The directory is key to all sorts of value added new services created when call costs go to zero. Telecoms got rid of yellow pages etc as it wasn't a core business. Skype would be too ambitious to go there.

HoustonChronicle.com - Working@home on Skype

FIRST it was the music industry, and now it's the telephone companies. Digital wizards may leave no industry unchanged.
Check out the latest from file-swapping pioneers as they set their sights on a new target and offer a system that lets people speak to each other for free

Made the WSJ very quickly!

WSJ on Skype:  "It's easy to dismiss Skype and other Internet voice initiatives as a lunatic fringe," said James Enck, a telecom analyst at Daiwa in London.

As expected by this weblog: But Janus Friis, one of the founders of Skype and its vice president of strategy, recently said the company plans to launch a service within six months to allow people to make calls over Skype using their traditional phones. Skype intends to make money by selling a package of additional telephone services to users, such as voice mail, Mr. Friis said. Phone calls will remain free.

Stockholm-based Skype is closely held. Draper Investment Co., established by American venture capitalist William H. Draper III, was the founding investor in Skype in 2002. (Tim Draper is an investor in Streamcast Networks, the operator of Morpheus).
JRobb

Picked up this note. Something that I tended to think was limited to cellphones "roaming" (at least for the time being) may just be beginning to emerge in WiFi. Now that makes Skype's appearance even more interesting. Could these two paths together accelerate the future? Then perhaps it makes the office more interesting too. No wires, no phones as we know them.

AIRCQ Wi-Fi Instant Messenger - 802.11 Planet, CT AirCQ by LodeSoft is an Instant Messaging program for WiFi computers that can be run on a dynamic, ever changing WiFi network. AirCQ ...

David follows up today with another detailed posting Skype P2P VoIP App: One in a Million?
"If they don't screw it up with a confusing and overpriced subscription service, Skype could possibly become one of those extremely rare apps that comes along and truly changes communication and networking on the web." David also puts a stick in the ground on pricing. I'm not sure I agree either in the global context or the method. What's important right now is the appropriate business expectations are created. Skype may well have launched with more "noise" than expected.

What I do want from David is his method for signaling whether Skype is online or offline on my blog. Come on David share! They will want it on Ryze pages and on Ecademy.

In the early reviews some emerging features are being missed.