Unbound Spiral

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]

I did a little further checking on Skype this morning. Try this search. Here's another article from InfoWorld With 10000+ users in a week I think it will blow all previous viral records.

I also looked up Stowe Boyd's Corrante blog on IM to see if it was being reported and then e-mailed him. Within minutes he was calling me. Very cool. I'm easy to find "stuart_henshall". I'll confirm the sound quality was much better than any Yahoo or MSN voice connection I've ever had.

It also turns IM on its head. It's ring centric. All those adults.. that are failing to understand messaging... understand how to make calls. Yep your PC will soon be ringing. Now what I want to know is:

I did a little further checking on Skype this morning. Try this search. Here's another article from InfoWorld With 10000+ users in a week I think it will blow all previous viral records.

I also looked up Stowe Boyd's Corrante blog on IM to see if it was being reported and then e-mailed him. Within minutes he was calling me. Very cool. I'm easy to find "stuart_henshall". I'll confirm the sound quality was much better than any Yahoo or MSN voice connection I've ever had.

It also turns IM on its head. It's ring centric. All those adults.. that are failing to understand messaging... understand how to make calls. Yep your PC will soon be ringing. Now what I want to know is:

Are there more business models around P2P? Seems a good time to highlight this emerging research business. BigChampagne is bubbling in the media world. Like Zoomerang lowered the cost of market reserach BigChampagne is the online ethnographer. They simply observe - watching for behavior changes.

In fact, it tracks every download and sells the data to the music industry. How one company is turning file-sharing networks into the world's biggest focus group. By Jeff Howe from Wired magazine. [Wired]

This month, I chatted with Kai Rissdal about the RIAA and BigChampagne, the company that gleans customer intelligence from filesharing networks. (The interview is in RealAudio.) [Z+Blog!]

Hard media is in jeopardy: By 2008, revenues from CDs will be off 19%, while DVDs and tapes will drop 8%. Piracy and its cure -- streaming and paid downloads -- will drive people to connect to entertainment, not own it.

If you are like me scanning for early indicators --- looking upstream from time to time to see what's coming then Skype and Big Champagne are two "signals" that the world may be moving in this direction. When I mentioned Skype to George Por today he kindly referred me to an article by Michel Bauwens, "Peer to Peer -from technology to politics to a new civilization". It was the first time I'd heard the meme "P2P Civilization". I rather liked it. There is further thinking in the "Integrative Style" in this Text Index.

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.

An excellent overview of Skype. Note Robin's comments re Vonage and similar services.

Please Skype Me: Disruptive P2P VoIP Technology Allows You To Call And Talk Free To Any Windows PC - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings

The advantage(s) of this over other similar new services like Vonage and Free World Dialup is that Skype does not rely on a centralized infrastructure to maintain the directory of users and to route each and every call. This means that for those services based on a centralized infrastructure costs scale proportionally with their user base while providing quality and reliability becomes always more difficult to achieve.

Where I'd disagree with advice later in the article which recommends accepting calls only from friends. I'm happy for example to accept calls from around the world. However I will check the info button before answering. Or I can simply treat it as one to call back. You can't always answer your computer. If I don't know / recognize your name or it is made up.... and there is no country etc. then the caller isn't providing enough info to encourage appropriate courtesy.

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.

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]

Well here's confirmation that Slashdot isn't in my Sharpreader. I almost missed the Slashdot posting on Skype?

I've been recognized for evangelism!

The need to evangelize Skype to use it, also helped the products success. Also, blogs like Unbound Spiral kept the meme alive and kept pumping new information about the product. Design Media:

I'm both pleased and concerned. I'm passionate about the changes that are emerging and frustrated I'm the "free" evangelist referred to below.

Evangelists are needed during the design phase to put in killer features and test their "wow factor". Currently, the features the alpha users like are become more important to the success of the product. Some of the alpha users, if impressed, may turn into a free evangelist for the product. Design Media:

The 'Wow factor' and a products success: All products need a "Wow factor" to grab the attention of the target audience. Usability comes at a later stage, but the wow factor is what gets the user to try the product. It might be a new look, a new use or a new feature. What is important about the wow factor is that it should be completely 'new' to the user, nothing similar to any other product. Design Media:

Yes Skype is on a roll and yet how many Bloggers on Skype are there? What is a SkypeRoll when you are tired with BlogRolls (See Jim's Comment) and want to start a new collection? How might SkypeRolls be used? What's the benefit of creating a Skype enabled posting and sending it out through an RSS feed? I think there's an angle for Classified Ads, and similar personals.

First what have I done? I've started an experiment. It's prototyping in its crudest fashion. I'm not a programmer and don't really want to be. First I created a SkypeRoll.

SkypeRoll borrows from the smart thinking behind using an MT Blog as a BlogRoll. I've just modified the fields to capture:

Bloggers on Skype
Uses the above information to read the RSS feed and thus capture the latest post in from the Skypers blog(when rebuilt). Note if you are in Bloggers on Skype you can enter your name and search for your page.

Note it is equally simple to enable a SkypePeople. The first thing that new Skypers want is a buddy to talk to. It could take a number of forms and similarly be enabled by RSS feeds. Thus you could subscribe to categories that you are interested in. Later this could evolve. Eg I'd like to talk to someone about taking a trip to NZ... (You may just find a friendly bed n breakfast Skyper down under answering it.)

I've used Mt's OtherBlog Plug-in to import the latest "Bloggers on Skype" entries onto this blog.

Want to Join Up? Join here! Similarly if you want all the Skype Links they are here. This isn't the world's best method for registering people. What it needs is a log-on system so individuals can register and then confirm without human intervention. So I thoughts or RECOMMENDATIONS PLEASE. What platform might enable this quickly?

I hope you are not thinking just another blogroll. There are reasons this could be both a good and bad idea. For me this represents a prototype to demonstrate the potential for a rapid broadcasting system (with categories) of individuals looking for conversation with possibly short lifespans for the connection. A CraigList on vocal steriods, a Match that is more synchonouse. Then approaching it another way could provide a notification system for new company leads in conjunction with both matching and profiling services.

There are also some issues that I'm sure many of us are aware of. From Spam Calls to the need for mulitiple profiles and callerID type programs. Is it person to person or person to business? Etc. I'd like your views. What's good? What needs to be solved? Where might it go?

Will Skype have an enterprise play? When does it make sense to try it out? If I'm a small professional services company does it make sense to start using it? Examples. PR firms, Patent Attorneys, Systems Developers, Trade Advisors. Any firm with global alliances and a large number of international calls.

When to start? Certain businesses will depend on understanding Skype. However most IT security departments would probably suggest that I am getting ahead of myself. Skype is still in beta. However I know a few businesses that are semi-virtual and operate around the world. Some of these have VoIP services although not all. Most aren't particularly sophisticated about tech, and have either a hard time managing it or find themselves paying big bills to keep things going. Frankly Skype is less likely in in current format to create holes or crash systems than anyone of the many other "venerabilities" they are likely to have.

Consider Costs: For many small businesses upgrading their phone exchanges is an expensive business. For the more international practices communication costs are a key budget item. It is one the company doesn't like to think about. It is a cost of doing business. However, substantial reductions in cost and wasted time in terms of telephone tag suggest it may be an effective solution.

Simple maths. At $20 per person this represents at 20cents per call it represents 100 calls with a duration of 10 minutes. At 1 dollar per call it is less than 20. Call India and the payback is probably one call.

Is there a Trial Solution? However there's a simple solution you can create and populate immediately. Here's my 50 person dispersed office solution for today! We know Skype will come out with a corporate solution eventually. Give every employee Skype now. In the fifty person firm your investment will be about $1000 for the headsets assuming the computing equipment is less than three years old and are not a Mac shop. There are a few other pieces you need dependent on equipment available. The question is... what's the payout period?

Short-term using two computers side by side you open accounts for everyone. Create a name that matches the e-mail name before the @. You create one master directory account for the company where you authorize all the accounts you just set up. Then when ready to go you issue the "memo" including the benefits. You may choose a couple of helpers. You send the e-mail with the download and install Skype instruction along with their log-in details and password. When installed they are to call your master directory account. You answer and using "tools" right click on their incoming call and "share all member directory contacts".... As the rest of the company gears up... each will be authorized. Time for 50 accounts? Less than 2 hours for the initial account definitions. Probably then fifteen minutes per person for their e-mail response. With a little help from some helpers... all done in a day.

Benefits:

Have you been wondering what the impact of Skype might be on Content Center Practice Management. Skype provide both potential opportunities and may also make short term marketing perspectives more difficult to manage.

When I bought my new IBM recently I wish I could have just Skyped with the operator. Instead I had to hold a phone, dial a number and wait. I couldn't send the URL of the page... With Skype you can reduce the cost of the calls and begin to integrate screen, IM and voice connections when received. I know I can connect immediately. Simply illustrated by the "SkypeMe" button on my website. Similarly if I miss the call then it's logged. They can call me back.

Clearly, there is no Skype "call center" capability yet, although TDavid illustrated how Various reps might be online / engaged etc with a simple system. I'd imagine a "next available" agent could work from a list that is periodically checked or notified when the agent is again free.

However a Skype strategy may lose the capability to do things like reverse address look-up, telephone number searches and providing quick demographic profiling data dependent on the callers location. Then in certain situations, a smart operator may find ways to run Google searches, Ryze checks etc. The real determinant will be... what degree of anonymity is the contact using. We'll use less if we learn we get better service. Similarly if the contact center has some "privacy" and reputation criteria, I may allow a more detailed "inquiry profile" through.

Then there is the contact center opportunity to press better profiles into the customers hand. When I get the rep on the phone "they aren't personalized" when I get one in Skype I may demand a more detailed profile in return. It helps to know who I am talking to. Humanize the connection. Enable me to rate the calls on completion etc. Now both parties are empowered to better connections.

No matter how you look at it... this can't be done with the phone. The potential for a richer contact environment is here. What's your strategy for success?

Skype

Skype launched Beta version 0.94 today with several enhancements, including language support for Spanish, Finnish, Polish and Romanian. There are also several improvements to text messaging, call-quality, network reliability, and support for USB phones. Please see our release notes for a complete list of enhancements.

What is your strategy for Skype? Where's the news and quotes on it this week? I've blogged Skype fairly consistently since my first Skype post because disruptive innovation is where real value is created and new industries born. Because it remains an "early warning indicator" of a tech-tonic shift. Then organizationally the question is... "How do we plan?" "How do we minimize risk in this emerging environment?", What powerful challenges must we communicate down through the organization? These are strategy questions. Current answers analytically based from Gartner to who knows where say you have years. Well it is simply not true. So how will you frame your questions to make your organization think faster?

The cost of my being right and you wrong ---- is an unbelievable destruction of bottomline wealth. If Skype reaches million and millions the loss of revenue will be in the billions. Yet Skype is not the problem it is merely the indicator that all has changed. The input you need to address the challenge is more qualitative, more focused on behavior. In a world in which the perception is the "profit" is gone... and cost cutting only (look at the centralized VoIP providers!) retains users the seeds for new value added propositions must begin now. Now these aren't just products. They may also be contracts, interconnect agreements that enable better products to be marketed. Strategies born of conditions to develop tomorrow. How well has Yahoo done with broadband?

So I remain amazed. The number that don't get it and the emerging few that do. What is really the state of understanding this week? While we still have reporters in the WSJ thinking phones if you are operating in this market with that frame of reference you are going to be dead.

The Register
"In Faultline's view Lee Gomes of the WSJ fails to understand how disruptive and discontinuous innovation works. The rules that have been observed through history are that you need to offer something half as good, for a tenth of the price."

It's the End of the Phone As We Know It …
"But I don't think the traditional wire-line phone folks will feel so good. That's because when you combine Wi-Fi with cellular, you just obviated the need for any wired phones at all. "

Werblog "It's the difference between making a phone call over the Internet, and voice as an internetworking application. Or to put it another way, the different between the Internet as a subset of telecommunications, and telecommunications as a subset of the Internet."

The Jeff Pulver Blog: Highway Skype Revisted "The present signs are for the coming of a true "Consumer Communications Revolution" but it will be up to the people to decide what part of the next phase of this revolution they will be a part of. And don't forgot that in the case of any revolution, you should expect to see those effected fighting back with the tools they are most effective in using - in this case it will be and is telecom regulations."

I've also been learning about ground reakers who have been in this space before and not made it. Elise Bauer is one. See her point of view at AlwaysOn.

The Hype of Skype :: AO

"Will Skype fulfill its promise as an end run around the phone companies? In my opinion, ultimately no, though it may do a good job of competing with AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft's IM clients. What would be a great product in this space is something that lets you program sophisticated phone capabilities for your phone through a simple web browser, your own soft PBX so to speak. However, I can tell you from experience that you can’t get there from a Windows IM client. (my bold)

In a world where less than 20 people can put together Skype, don't tell me it is either too expensive, not worth some experimental dollars, or different research approaches.

This Skype complaint is one worth looking at a little more seriously. For I still believe that adding a SkypeMe function to Feedster would promote some interesting conversations. The SkypeMe button on my site has certainly worked positively for me. However, I think it is the unintended consequeces of linking Skype to RSS feeds and their resulting searches that will create the real value.

Need a for example. Bet people start AOL blogs and then send out anonymous SkypeMe personals ads via RSS. You keep the blog and the handle only for that purpose. When Skype enables multiple profiles (lines) some will run more than one blog at once.

Now if you were AOL you might just put an add in every feed to pay for the blog. Similarly once you find the "anonymized" blog entry... the SkypeMe handle will enable you to search all their postings.

Debating Turning Off Skype -- Permanently

I just had the oddest Skype experience. Someone called me. They seemed to know who I was (at least my last name). They accused me of not talking clearly............... I just exited -- and may never run the damn thing again.

The reason for asking about this is that I've been debating adding a Feedster feature to find Skype IDs and now I'm not sure if its worth the bother. What's the perception of Skype out there? Yes they have > 1,000,000 downloads **but** I've only ever completed maybe 3 conversations successfully. And those three were right when it launched and the load was presumably lighter.

Peter Kalmstrom has developed an interesting Outlook application for Skype.

Outlook Skype
Why an Outlook Skype application?

You probably already have a number of contacts in Outlook. This application allows you to use those contacts to call directly via Skype and also store the Skype information directly in the Outlook Contact. The contacts folder can be either a private or a public folder. Using a public folder gives the added benefit of allowing multiple users to share Skype friends lists.

What is ailing Skype growth today? The link below is hardly a statistical sample on Skype yet some numbers ring true. Read it all for more. What underlies the numbers is that Skype growth is changing. New users (like my son are online sporadically, he uses it with friends while teaming up to play games online). For the rest I hear the frequent story of I only have three or four buddies on my list.....

So a few quick notes on:

Skype releases another update 0.95. However with so many frequent releases perhaps we are just just seeing the same users "download" the latest version. Here's another review "Skype Tops Frustration" supporting my recent post that there are still some hurdles to climb.

The downloads number remains a fiction for all those quoting it in the press. It doesn't represent users. We may see 2,857,223 downloads today. It's not the audience size. In fact Skype has been notifying all 0.92 users to upgrade. That must be quite a few!

For the notes. I'm yet to see 150000 online at anyone time although it must be close. Skype still skews to Europe and thus peaks around 12:00pm daily. The number is still impressive, however unless Skype releases more appropriate data these numbers appear to remain very optimistic!

Skype today announced the release of Beta version 0.95 with several new features and enhancements, including a ring tone manager and the ability to block unwanted callers. These enhancements are a direct result of listening carefully to the demands of our growing user-base (now in excess of 2.5 million downloads). Now you can make Skype sound exactly the way you want by customizing the ring signals used by Skype when someone calls you. In addition, we have added the ability to permanently block unwanted callers as well as global hotkeys. We would like to thank the thousands of users who requested these features by using the forums, and we look forward to continuing to design Skype by listening closely to what our users want. Please see our release notes for a complete list of enhancements. Don't Type... Skype! New Beta 0.95

Ross Mayfield blogs on Skype and Estonia. He must have saved a Windows machine in reserve! I too know the little country impact from days in NZ. Adoption is even higher when the solution is created there and the population begins to take on the world. I like his example of the doctor and wonder how many of these calls are being made straight into small offices there? I'm sure many people like bypassing the operator! We want the operator when we want a filter, however when it is our doctor we really don't want an operator at all. Similarly, putting the doctor in a call que is not an efficient use of their time. Giving friends better access to your desktop for messaging, voice, and voice mail makes a lot of sense. Let your computer play operator. The Estonians are finding out quickly how to do it. Those horrible "hello" messaging systems... and number of the extension dial in the name etc. are doomed!

Before long there may be a market for Learning Journeys to Estonia! Skype now claims 3.3 million downloads.

You may know that Skype, the P2P telephony platform that is all the rage in early adopter circles, is being developed in Estonia. You may also know that the little country that could is dear to my heart. But you might not know that in Estonia, Skype adoption has already crossed the chasm.

When something big happens in a little country, word gets around fast. Even my father-in-law is using Skype to call us (instead of our Vonage line). Family doctors are using it to set appointments and communicate with patients. I don't have any country-by-country statistics (do you?), just personal anecdotes that regular people are using Skype in droves instead of calls. People are using it for more than saving money with call quality above standard (better than mobile) -- but because the mode of use differs it is gaining a different culture of use.

[Ross Mayfield's Weblog]

There is a continued strong indication that Skype product development is going in the right direction! Two recent articles in CNET and Red Herring on Skype. I found the contrast in the two quotes below interesting. Underlying it is a reality that suggests SKYPE is actually growing a new market for communications, fulfilling an unmet and till now unarticulated need. Concurrently their conference calling capability when provided will change an industry.

By contrast Vonage doesn't' believe that many people will be calling each other using PC's too soon. I wonder if he has worked with full-time live desktop messaging and conferencing applications on his desktop? Please hook this exec to a bluetooth earpiece and enable virtual watercooler conversations to gain visibility. Eg who's talking to who combined with subject etc.

Skype's VoIP ambitions |CNET.com

When will you have a gateway to the telephone network?
We're working on it...It's something that's going to be much later on.

When?
The interesting thing is that in the feedback we get from users this is not the highest priority. They're more interested in conference calling and voice mail. People are much more comfortable with using the Internet for communications. People are being much more mature with the Internet. They say, "This is my primary way to communicate. The people that I'm calling I'm encouraging them to get on Skype." People are quite happy with that.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence already that Skype is enabling new conversations. For those early super users -- someone should be tracking "share of voice minutes" --- the PC must already own the majority of their communications time. However like e-mail much is one to one rather than many to many. A simple desktop conferencing program will enable with point n click something that currently can't be organized in a spontaneous fashion.

RED HERRING | The Business of Technology

John Rego, CFO of Vonage, does not think free calling gives Skype an advantage as long as Skype users can call only each other for free. I do not see it as any kind of wide-scale mechanism that will replace the phone system, he says

Thoughts on Skype, Skype Problems, Skype Limitations, Skype Hype, Skype Product Development and Viral Marketing. A few things pushed me towards this post.

Skyper wants their own Skype emoticons. I don't design emoticons. I have to have a few strategy suggestons that go beyond the brief below which suggests text based emoticons for the text based message portion of Skype.

* add a new social dimension to the exchange
* emoticons must leverage Skype's voice-centric advantage
* create new functionality for responding to the "ringer"
* encourage behaviors that encourage longer connections
* appeal to all age groups

Possiblilities? Simply enable the emoticon core set to be colored. I'm generally blue today, or I'm orange. Skype could stick to standard yellow or make life more interesting. Yeah, I went orange smile, yellow laugh. blue shades and purple wink.... There's plenty of color tests on the web. Skype would open up a whole new genre of web based psychology just by taking the step and then allowing users to create a program based on Luscher's Color Test.

While on emoticons a sample of my Trillian master list suggests some emoticons are missing. eg a quick "on the phone", "caller detective"(for more information or profile), "conferencing". "I'm mobile" - as Skype goes portable.... Rather than answering the call it would be nice to have a quick emoticon text reply along with a possible redirect feature.

Still I can't get too excited when what I really want is to play the music I'm listening to at a lower level to the person on the other end of the line when I answer. Or whenever one party or the other wants to pipe it into the conversation. Like talking in a room with music in the background. Seeing as I can already do this for myself (playing WinAmpat a low volume level and talking) it would be nice to tune in the other person. Playing music for each other then takes on a whole new perspective. It might stimulate some further new emoticons! Conections and potential conference calls will go up exponentially. Shame that is so hard for a phone company to do! Just another reason the phone system is old and tired.

Are you a budding designer with a burning desire to get world-wide recognition for your work? Skype is offering you that chance with a challenge to create new emoticons (graphical expressions) for the Text Messaging portion of the world's fastest growing Internet telephony program. Skype is looking for submissions for 10 emoticons which will be used by millions of Skype consumers all around the world. We will chose among all entries received before January 15, 2004 (23:59.59 Central European Time) and the winner will be named on the Skype homepage and receive a Skype T-Shirt.
Skype

To see a list of Skyper desires for new features see the list at Public Mind. The obvious ones are all there. Not listed are SkypePages, and Caller Id solutions etc. Looking in the forums today I did see a note that the Skype Business Development team apart from being swamped is beginning to release some API details.

The blogosphere seems intent on finishing the year on a social note. I'm seeing plenty of posts on LinkedIn, ZeroDegrees, Spoke and continued tirades over what Ryze, Tribe and Friendster provide or don't. Yes it's an area I've read about and have followed closely all year. So in the closing moments I'll say I don't think any of these are real businesses. None of these are the eBbay of social capital. Some may have important functionalities that may add up to a business sometime in the future. However those that use $10 subscription rates for current functionality levels can forget it. They are all too expensive. It's cheaper to get in the Yellow Pages.

Early in the year I found myself writing about identity and sharing human profiles to thinking through circles of friends and the impact of actions on branding and behavior. I've explored almost every one of these software applications as they have come along. There is not yet one pieces of software from this genre that I get real enjoyment from. Each one I can learn the system and get it to do a small number of things. I can get new introductions, however the people that really count and my long time referees aren't on the system and I've given up trying to get them there. In the end my blog and strategies that I execute around it are a better time investment for networking to new connections.

Many of the social networking services provide useful functionalities (dating - matching is really separate to my comments here) however none of them provide the type of product / service that is going to be a big time winner. They are high maintenance for the most part and fail to integrate well into the day to day work that we do. Then there is trust too. Upload your outlook address book etc... They are all useful experiments and many of their features will be built into corporate systems. Yet, I believe the majority are barking up the wrong tree.

Here's some top of mind reasons why.

Business Week on Skype worth the read.

Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis could be the two most dangerous men on the Internet -- dangerous to entrenched business models, that is. The Scandinavian duo created the KaZaA file-swapping software that became the dominant online music-trading platform after lawsuits killed Napster in 2001.
BW Online | January 6, 2004 | Skype: Net Telephony as File-Trading

A great article in last weeks (Jan 26th) Fortune written by Dan Roth on Skype. He travels to Estonia and beyond tracking down and talking to the creators of Kazaa and Skype. Can't help but wish I had been travelling with him. For potential innovators what is interesting is that Skype emerged from over four years of experience. Experience in the music industry, experience building P2P systems and a perspective built round intellectual property, lawyers and regulation. Headquarters now being established in London.

Two quotes really caught my attention.

It costs Vonage-the top provider of paid Internet telephony, with 97,000 users-almost $400 to add a new customer. It costs Skype one-tenth of a cent.

and
"What Skype is doing is like a toy," says Hossein Eslambolchi, AT&T's chief technology officer and president of AT&T Labs. "They will realize they can't scale it, they don't have a brand like the AT&T brand, and they don't have the local footprint, which we have. It's going to be very hard to compete with someone like AT&T."

I would have liked to have seen (in Dan's article) some reference to Skype's experimenting with forums and even bloggers. The "SkypeMe" initiative, the rapid infusion of ideas has from my perspective clearly helped Skype. My bet is they are learning from their marketplace faster than the "traditional company" or organization. That's a cost saving for development. The trick now is to accelerate

Add to that the tenth of a cent that they are demonstrating very effectively. Orkut like Skype is capturing people at a very low cost. I mentioned it with my first post on Orkut that I'd already created a larger network there than on Ryze or any of the other networking services. It's also true for Skype. However for Skype I don't know if I'm unusual or not (I assume I am) however I have more "connections" on Skype than I have on MSN, Yahoo and AIM combined.

Then there is the other perspective my SBC bill last month was $72m my Comcast Cable $91(std tv + broadband) and my mobile $70. Franky I can't wait to get rid of SBC, that is the least useful of all these services. I only keep it for international calls for which my bill has been cut by more than half in the last five month due to Skype. Plus I spend more time talking.

Here's just part of the reason I want my next mobile phone to have bluetooth.

Skype — a software firm run by Swedish entrepreneur Niklas Zennström — expects to complete a deal with an unidentified handset maker to incorporate software allowing users to make free calls to other mobile or PC users with the same software. For such phones to work, the handset would need built-in wireless Internet access enabling mobile users to bypass conventional networks to make VoIP calls. The caller would also have to be in a wi-fi "hot spot" to get Net access.

TIME Europe Magazine: Good Call -- Feb. 16, 2004

I wouldn't mind a wireless headset too!

Is it time for a new "always on" study? Andy Abramson picks up on the BBC link below on VoIP and how new programs like Skype are changing the meaning of dialing or making a call. Still the premises behind the article stay remain very much within the boundaries of thinking about phones as phones. I believe that more fundamental shifts in behavior are afoot.

The contrarian would consider whether "always on" changse access in ways that infact make getting to a person more difficult rather than easier.

Imagine a world in which,,,,, you are in a series of online conference calls. Some are almost permanently on. You can no longer dial me.... the question is whether you can get access to one of my conferences. You might just need a little social networking product to help you find someone out over the network. May have to holler, just like trying to locate someone on a playground.

The BBC Magazine has an interesting discussion story about VoIP and how it is changing communications.

By recognizing that the paradigm has changed from dial, talk, hang up, it is showing that how voice communciation is changing.

Free services like Skype, SipPhone, Firefly all now mean that instead of typing and chatting via an IM client, you can now "talk" to the other party in real time. For those who are "always on" the phone becomes less and less of the primary means of communication with tools like email and IM at their disposal. Now with high enough voice quality being available for free think of these new VoIP services as the intercom for the distance workers.

[Andy Abramsom]

The promised Skype conferencing capability is nearing launch. The preview version is available for additional testing today. To confirm I just connect a conference with Bay Area (2), France and India. Great call quality. I then connected another with China and Bay Area. All off my IBM t-40 laptop. Sound quality was pretty good. There appeared to be no lag. I had excellent voice and sound quality although not all participants could claim this 100% of the connection time.

Skype Launches Free Conference Calling
LUXEMBOURG - Up to 5 People Can Talk Together From Anywhere in the World -
Skype Technologies S.A., the Global P2P Telephony Company that offers consumers the ability to make free voice calls using their broadband connections, today announced the world's first peer-to-peer (P2P) Internet telephony conference calling feature, allowing up to five friends to talk with each other simultaneously, regardless of geography. The new version also includes a multiple call hold feature that allows for 16 callers to be simultaneously put on hold by a single user. Scoop: Skype Launches Free Conference Calling

We have been working hard on our next release and we are pleased to make this available to our forum readers before the general public. You can get the latest version of Skype here: http://download.skype.com/SkypeSetup-Beta-Preview.exe

Note that we have identified a bug which may be specifically related to IBM Thinkpads (T40) whereby when they try to add a 6th conference participant they get Blue Screen of Death error. Please let us know here if you see this error (or any other feedback) as soon as possible along with which setup you are using. As with any beta release, we encourage you to download and use Skype at your own risk. Thanks for helping us to test and improve Skype! Skype - free conferencing version - Feedback pls.

How to conference:
If you want to dial several people all at once and start a conference call with them, you first need to select participants from your Contact List by holding "ctrl" and clicking them. Once they have been selected, click the conference toolbar button. This will show you the conference tab and you will see the names of the participants you have called. If and when these participants answer your call, they will be added to the conference.

Or, if you are already in an active call and would like to add an additional participant to a conference, you can select the person you want to add to the conference from your contact list and click the conferencing toolbar button OR you can simply right-click a new contact from your Contact List and choose "Invite to conference"

Keep in mind that the host of the conference (the person who started the conference) is the only person that can add new participants. In addition, because Skype conferences are done Peer-to-Peer, it's important that the conference host (the person who starts the conference) has a good Internet connection and computer. If you are planning to conference with many participants you should choose the person with the best internet connection to be the initiator (host) of the conference.
Skype

Skype's conferencing announcment today takes us ones step closer to the "always on" world. We can expect a new wave of excitement as new users now discover new and very compelling reasons to try out Skype. From always on, running multiple conferences, new incoming call functionality, and then bridging functionalities across different programs.

Quick Reflections:
After my first Skype conference calls I realized how just how "different" it is. In a traditional conference call you dial-in to a phone number and the conference is pinged as you enter. No-one knows who is coming in unitl they announce themselves. These calls are usually scheduled for a specific time. Hardly a spontaneous way to connect a few people or in the "spur of the moment" bring someone new into the conversation. Phil Wolff met my Dad today! So if you haven't tried it here's what happens.... I'm Skyping with you and want an additional person in the conversation.... I right click on the new contact in my friends list and that individual is added in to the conversation. My screen (see TDavid for picture) expands to show the new connection. I can introduce them, knowing exactly when the connection is established. If you want more info on them you can right click and view their profile. You need 0.97 to see them once added. Either party in a two way conversation can initiate a conference call.

After the first time... you realize that making a conference call just became that much easier. More importantly, being always on in Skype doesn't mean you will miss calls from others. You could simply toggle between your "permanent conference" and "individual" calls. Given the number you can put on hold you can be linked and in and out of multiple conferences at any time. Although you personally can only hold one. Experimenting with the auto answering functionality may become interesting here.

Then it is also a surprise (BIG SURPRISE) the first time that you are in a Skype call and another Skype call is incoming. To date we've not had this functionality. This puts call waiting to shame! For it is not just a buzzing, rather I see their name and have a choice I can put the other person on hold, I can text them or dial them back and add them into the orginal call expanding it to an instant conference call. Or I can just leave them on hold etc.

I quickly missed a "conference text" capability or even the capability to message all with a link. While in a conference currently you can continue texting one to one however there is no group texting capability. I imagine there are some additional issues to overcome. Perhaps a short-term Skype solution is provide a broadcast text component for the conference moderator that messages all simutaneously. Thus a link could be shared quickly. Almost concurrently with this I found myself in an IM session with Stewart Butterfield Ludicorp and Flickr. It would be pretty neat to run a SkypeFlickr conference tomorrow. I do wonder if programs like these could be activated by the Skype callto: function. Thus an inbound Skype call would provide a Fickr profile (or a group of my choosing) and thus enable photo conference..... etc.

What could be coming?
We've posted earlier in these pages about the potential for premium pricing plans, and the business model. I believe we can add to that list a premium conference services which will include a time based dialing capability with advance notification and the name of the conference handled with a group text message capablity. Other functionality could quickly be added. The thing is that Skype is already proving that "integration" strategies for voice are probably flawed. I regularly use Skype and Glance, have tried Skype and Groove, use Skype and Yahoo etc.

I'd expect that more than five participants will become a premium conference service.

Expect to see Skype adopted by gaming kids.

Tomorrow's Experiment?
I'm still thinking about how to establish a virtual room, a little like an IRC chat channel. The problem is a the moment that conferences have to be initiated. You can't dial in and be bridged to a conference. Bill Campbell demonstrated that using "TightVNC" you could log to a webpage and then instruct the conferencing computer to call you. This isn't going to fly for the majority. However, it would be pretty neat to run a series of conferences where you could sign up and automatically be connected when the "threshold" number is reached. Similarly, a group may use another machine to time schedule conferences. Why think about this? I believe there are opportunities for workgroups to have an always on conference. This would bring virtual workgroups closer together. If you initiate this... via Skype as the initiator you can only run the one conference throughout the day. At the moment you are limited to five people.

I bet there are more ideas out there!

Last night I had a mind bender from a friend who said: "With our solution each Skype conferencee (each on a different continent) could be on a cell phone - and each one could be on a different continent to their PC-now there's a weird extension!"! It sounds pretty farfetched and I'm still trying to get my head around it. Yet effectively this is just one of the possible implications that may emerge from current progress.

PCPro gets the news out today heralding in Skype's new conference service, while Clay Shirky sums up my ramble from two days ago in a nice crisp short sentence. However, I think it runs deeper.

Today sees Skype claiming the accolade of the world's first IP-based conference-call service using peer-to-peer technology. PCPro

The biggest difference between VoIP and the circuit-switched phone network we've got is not going to be cheap phone calls. It's going to be ridculouly easy group-forming. Many-to-Many

You don't have to be a genius to see that low-latency plus high-bandwidth looks like a tasty recipe for next-generation IP-based voice apps. Voice is still the aœkiller app. But it is evolving once freed from the clammy dead hand of circuit telephony. Should enterprises start demanding end-to-end encypted voice, then Flarion can deliver it using off-the-shelf technology. Integrate presence, IM and voice a-la Skype? No problem. Anyone left with a faux-circuit network will be left spluttering. Telepocalypse

The cool thing about 802.20 is that it has "doppler tolerance" which means that unlike the currrent version 802.16, 802.20 can be used for mobile. Go Wireless ISPs and 802.20 go! Roland Tanglao

Voice Avatars:
Last night I suggested we take a deeper look at Wave Market, while I've also had a few more thoughts about Flickr. The real voice applications are still to emerge. While I'm encrypted in conversation with Skype I think for the most part I pretty much sound like Stuart Henshall. Now imagine a different world. A mobile world where people are not identifiable by their live voice but rather by a voice avatar. You may never hear the real me if you are outside my direct social network. Peeling away layers of identity may involve exposing voice too. Think this is weird? Just think of the TV interview where the investigator wants to protect someone's identity. Extend that to conference calls you are in. Some may hear the real you others may not! This game is played in chatrooms around the world. Provide the same anonymities as text and watch for an explosion. Join a wireless chat channel in the Airport etc.

Voice and Location:
Similarly, as systems improve full stereo may become the norm. Total immersion in a game would enable me to hear where my friends are and where the danger is. I still want to play America's Army this way with my mates in the soundscape. In other situations walking towards one another in a crowd could be directed by sound.

These last two items just begin to show new ways for rapidly forming groups and tying them into social networks. They are just one part of trying to solve the "always-on" connection questions and what it means to have an open line and varying degrees of presence no matter where you are. I'd also suggest we don't limit the exploration to the current paradigm. Small group conferencing via Skype is just the beginning. Playing music to the group while in conference might be the next item.... Might just give a reason to leave an open channel on.

For those trying to learn more about Skype's conference call function a forum group put their experiences down in this pdf document. Skype Forum

See also comments via Skype on future conferencing additions.

No it is not free telephone calls that are Skype's disruptive punch but free conference calls that obsolete current networks. Disruptive innovation takes a path that others can't follow. Skype is vulnerable in only a few areas and that has nothing to do with telephony. It is only to do with consumers (and perhaps governments and regulatory authorities) and I'll leave that little bit of hyperbole for later. (For more posts on Skype)

Various reader questions today caused me to stop and think over Skype's likely conference business model, being always-on, running panel conferences, using Skype for gaming applications and presence (to be posted separately). BTW the current link to the SKYPE conference beta is here. There's been plenty of talk over years of call costs going to zero. However I've never heard it promoted that conference call will be zero cost. As I think back over scenarios and ideas I've heard --- no one ever seems to ask:

Skype is breaking new ground by trying to bring PDAs that can connect to the Internet into the VoIP mix, said Zennstrom, who co-authored the software the Kazaa file-sharing network uses. "It was one of the top requests from our users," he added.

But the push to PDAs could have drawbacks. To make VoIP calls, a PDA would need to have a broadband connection. For now, only a limited number of PDAs that have built-in Wi-Fi connections would be capable of making Skype calls.
Free Net calling goes beyond the PC | CNET News.com

There are a few issues when using VoIP on a PDA. (1), PDAs need a Wi-Fi connection (2), Network Address Translation (NAT) traversal is often problematic. (3), Wi-Fi VoIP Roaming needs special support.

Still, VoIP vendors are racing ahead with solutions. The Proxim AP-4000 Access Point (MSRP $899, $650 street), for example, is designed for roaming VoIP and supports pre-802.11e, the standard designed for quality of service (QoS).

Competing VoIP software for wireless PDAs is available from Palm Computer, Pocket Presence, Telesym and VLI.
Daily Wireless - Mobilizing VoIP

Skype formally releases 0.97.01 beta today adding free conference calls to its easy to use voice application. See earlier entries in the Skype Journal.

February 23, 2004 Skype conference calling allows up to five friends to chat together on one call. The new feature is very easy to use and like regular Skype calls they are free, unlimited and excellent quality. Making a conference call has never been easier, cheaper or so much fun. The latest version also includes a multiple call hold feature that allows for 16 callers to be simultaneously put on hold by a single user. You can get 0.97.0.1 from our main download page .

You can read about how to make conference calls on our user guide

Skype: Beta 0.97 with free conference calling

Douglas Galbi in his comment links to his fascinating paper Sense in Communications: Note Douglas is an economist with the FCC and his paper an in-depth study 190 pages on "Presence". He states that: "To avoid disaster, the telecommunications industry needs to shift from providing telephony to providing means for making sense of presence." I wholeheartedly agree!

Summarizing elements from his paper is both quite a challenge and really doesn't do justice to the depth of thinking, historical perspective and gorgeous photos provided. So this blogspeed entry tries to make some small sense of presence. My favorite pages 6, 7, 126, 127, 128, 130, 133, 136, 137, 141, 142. Direct quotes are in italics.

Key Insights:
"Presence" is fundamental to creating future communications value. We are a a critical point where the interaction of photography (pictures) and telephony (calls) will radically reduce the cost of making sense of presence and create new opportunities for value creation

What makes a letter a joy, or a voice from an object (a telephone headset) a comfort, rather than a horror, depends on the sense of another's presence, despite that person's physical absence. The way this sense is activated, and at what cost, directly relates to sensuous choices in communication.

Since most demand for information is for textual information, information transfer offers relatively little scope for comparative advantage in sensuousness. In storytelling, high-production cost, streaming audio-visual stories dominate other feasible sensuous forms. At the other end of the technological spectrum, the extraordinary advantages of paper and ink as a storytelling medium - low-cost, highly portable, widely accessible, and durable - make it difficult for a sensory alternatives to create a competitive advantage.3

Providing means for persons to make sense of presence in the absence of physical proximity is a business in which sensory innovation has enduring opportunities to create value. Making sense of presence in social interaction among friends and family has long driven demand for telephony and photography.

Making sense of presence also drives demand for use of e-mail, instant messaging, mobile short messaging services (SMS), and camera phones. Making sense of presence is a good not constrained by conventional distinctions between content and communication.
(my bold)

Communication services have enormous opportunities for innovation, differentiation, and
commercial competition in organizing sensory modes to support production of this highly valued good. Not understanding this good could be disastrous for major, well-established organizations.

Communicating using photographs and communicating by telephone calls are related in a fundamental sense: the sense of presence. The predominate uses of both photography and telephony involve actively recognizing another despite that person's physical absence. A photograph and a telephone conversation each provide only one mode of external sense of another person. Nonetheless, using a photograph or using a telephone call, bodily work can create a sense of presence. The complementarity of photographs and telephone calls suggests that persons complement voice-only experiences of presence with image-only experiences of presence.

The emerging "broadband industry" will obsolete the telephone company and has probably already killed Kodak who remains focused on digital photography and albums. Similarly, contextualizing voice and presence provides new opportunities for security companies, reputation management etc. The implications for emerging companies like Skype is to keep the trade-offs of photo vs video in mind when developing additional funcitonality and assessing bandwidth implications. Thus Skype voice to WiFi PDA's is more important than adding real-time video. Concurrently adding pictures that can be shared during conference calls and providing interesting aspects for presence could add significant value quickly with little impact on quality. A simple example is pictures change when status changes. These elements are far more important to conferencing and mobility than live video streaming which can already be achieve by using Skype and Yahoo concurrently. Skype's real opportunity is when the application becomes completely mobile. Concurrently the mobile handset and PDA makers better get their skates on. It is just becoming obvious how much can be made here. In a crude sense every dollar currently made on telephony in the future will be made in the service of presence.

I've taken some flak recently for my "SkypeMe" middle name. Similarly I've had a few comment from different quarters that Skype will never be a real telephone company. With that comment I probably agree. My point is that Skype is leading us somewhere new.

From time to time my work involves me in scenarios and strategy. I tend to press the boundaries of the possible. By now if you are reading this blog you will know I also like the devils advocate and contrarian roles when appropriate. For that divergent thinking is part of the real role of scenarios for minimizing risk and maximizing learning. Through that lens Skype remains an early indicator. Like Napster and Kazaa (for that matter) it is a radical change in the way things operate.

Much of the debate around Skype focuses on the telephone industry rather than seeing something new. Skype may be the airlines and aircraft while POTS remains the train tracks and trains.

I also believe there are a number of lessons from presence to mobility that "old style" telecom providers fail to understand or aren't actively pursuing. Most of the marketing I see remains phone centric rather than about communications. The type of new and emerging functionality that people includes things like can I handle my voice mail while on a plane? Of course you can, just most people have yet to experience it. Similarly in a car. Concurrently I've been more interested in the opportunity for new information markets around Skype type functionality. The future of call waiting, caller id etc. Even 0900 style numbers provide opportunities. No much is new here. Just the opportunity to tie it into computing applications and the big screen. Skype's biggest risk and challenge may just be the exchange on the desktop that just accesses the lowest cost solution whereever I am using the highest quality sound.

Similarly I still get comments re MSN and Yahoo. What out Skype they are coming. From what I can see MSN has had more than six month to launch a voice centric version of their IM product, Yahoo the same. Both however have significant issues with increasing "voice" which I'd guess is much more expensive than brokering test messaging. Thus theyy have two problems. To compete with Skype for consumers and SMHO they must adopt a P2P approach and they must adopt a sound codec that is better than the one they currently use which is I think SIP compatible. Similarly they have to solve their NAT problems. MSN and Yahoo don't deliver on voice. Yahoo can deliver a fairly good but sometimes delayed webcam in conjunction with a clear Skype call even at full screen size.

This is perhaps not the ultimate in communication. It's also not a full telephone system. However Skype has started a battle that the telecom giants are not well equiped to handle. That battle is around sound quality. It's also a challenge for mobile providers. I know there are also other technologies out their that are better than Skype. I expect they will continue to improve. I also see headset operators whether Nokia or Motorola or HP adding WiFi and bluetooth capabiliies everywhere. Then we will see which "quality" level is preferred.

So.... Will Skype fly fast enough and high enough to break more than just the sound barrier?

I was going to write about Clay Shirky's latest musings much earlier in the week. They were very much in tune with my last Supersonic Skype post. For the VoIP incumbants and traditionalists it must come as quite a shock. Skype regularly has a quarter of a million users online at anyone time. We know that millions have signed up and are experimenting. On uptake my sense is Skype adoption is again accelerating. Those that tried it early on and failed to find enough fellow users appear to be coming back again to try the latest conferencing capability.

However some weeks go by and not much is newsworthy. So it's a judgement call when I say my Feedster RSS link for Skype is now capturing many more Skype entries than it was preconferencing. I do wonder when I can graph Feedster links on a week by week and moving average basis for a particular topic area. My Skype gripe of the week and an easy one to fix or provide an option for. Skype in your text messaging box please set hotlinks to open a new browser window when clicked! Alternatively make it optional.

Another Skype aspect that doesn't get the number of complaints it should is the operating system. Oh there is the odd post in the forums. However, real users know it's no good just having a Windows based phone system. Like Office works on a Mac I must have Skype working on both OSX and Linux. I have too many friends on Apple boxes. Many of the most influential bloggers are on Mac's so either connect it to iChat or fix the problem.

Then there's one aspect that comes back from time to time. Skype's Eula by Scott Mace See this post by David Isenberg who says let's not go crazy. So now we have a typicaly example of a recycled post that may or may not be consistent with the current EULA. I know of no spyware. The lawyers are just making their $$$.

Clay on Plans:

The only thing that might save Plan A from death by delay is evidence that users are adopting Plan B in large numbers, using the internet for voice applications completely outside the framework of telephony as we've known it for more than a century. We should all hope that happens, because if wide adoption of Plan B convinces the regulators and incumbents to acclerate their VoIP offerings, the users benefit. And if it doesn't, Plan B will be all we get, so we may as well start experimenting with it now.
Shirky

Microsoft: Your Next Phone Company?It's keeping mum, but the giant has already introduced software that could turn into the killer phone application
BW Online

As Robert Atkinson, formerly with the FCC and now policy director of the Institute for Teleinformation at Columbia University put it, "The idea of two people talking to each other on computer doesn't matter much."What does matter is if voice becomes instantaneous and transferable over all sorts of devices over all kinds of networks -- computers, cell phones, pdas, and regular old telephones.That's what opens the way to a host of new programs and applications and communications advances. (..)

But even in the friendliest of federal hands, two big hurdles could block VoIP from truly transforming the face of communications.One is access charges for interconnections and universal service. And in addition to the economic hurdle, there also is a technical one which is actually connected to wiretapping as a primary tool for law enforcement. By Duane D. Freese TCS: Tech Central Station via Smart Mobs]

Qzoxy Software Inc.(Q-zox-ee) has announced its collaboration on the COM API toolkit, which turns any conventional product into a full presence application. Qzoxy is the first third party to participate in the new Skype Developers Program.

Using a set of easily-learned commands, developers can now include online-status indicators for sales or support staff, allowing customers to connect instantly. Bloggers can let readers know when they’re available for voice or text chat. Members of bulletin board communities can see your availability, or fellow team members or workgroups members can instantly see your status and invite you to a voice or text conference. There is no need to include phone numbers on the page, and customers from overseas no longer need to spend money on expensive phone calls only to discover they’re through to voice mail.

“Qzoxy, is proud to have been part of a small group of beta testers working closely with Skype on the development of their API since early spring”, explained Qzoxy CEO, Bill Campbell.

“Using Visual Basic, Java or other programming languages alongside Qzoxy COM API allows for rapid creation of powerful Skype presence and voice solutions for businesses and consumers worldwide,” said Campbell.

“With the launch of the Skype API we can work with third-party developers like Qzoxy to open Skype to other platforms”, said a Skype spokesman in Estonia. “Qzoxy was chosen to be our first third party relationship so we could test drive and refine the processes of our Skype Developers Program. We believe third parties will help us add value to attract millions of new users to the Skype community which already has over 14 million users.”

“The ability to broadcast your Skype Online status into your communities of interest changes the whole landscape of instant voice-text conferencing by adding your availability. An online status icon on your web site says to visitors: Talk to me. And if the visitor isn’t lucky enough to be a Skype user, they just send an Instant Message to you from your web site with their preferred method of connection: Skype, landline or mobile number so you can use Skype or SkypeOut to return their call. Qzoxy has a powerful way to change how we communicate”, says Stuart Henshall, a Skype Blogger and presence pundit in California. Qzoxy Press Release

Om Malik points to the recent Engadget article now on Slashdot and has had enough already. That guarantees I'll be over the top on Skype again. Finally, I have no financial relationship with the Qzoxy team although we've been in touch for ages and I'm happily trying out new applications. The comment only seems relevant to all the paid for blogging comments I've seen recently. In themselves they are quite a story. Qzoxy grew out of testing sessions in the the Skype Forums. Clearly, lots of long international Skype conversations pay dividends and they are a perfect example of a company forming even though all the parties have never met face to face. That says something.

So what makes the first Skype application from Qzoxy and Jyve so very interesting? It's a smart VCard and here is a picture and of the working prototype today, a mere illustration of what will exist a year from now. If you are operating a call center, a social networking site, dating site, 900 business etc. think it through. I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT USES YOU SEE EMERGING?

Marc Canter of FOAF fame? Then to quote David Weinberger "It'd integrate with other applications on your phone device. It'd know who's calling from where and spin up a web page to show you the relevant information. It'd link to everything the Net knows.". Is this part of what you want David?

A couple of things worth pointing out. You don't need to have Skype to send in a call request. Thus even POTS only can request a Skype call back which at your option can be executed at SkypeOut rates. In time I'm sure this VCard no Q-Card will evolve to tell you the best way to get me at any moment and how long you have to wait. Q - Que. That's more useful than Plaxo (I don't use it) which merely updates phone numbers. Then there are a lot of paying businesses that work around the "click to connect". There is a lot of opportunity here.

The Skype API has been noted by Tom Keating and Andy Abramson of course. Still if you go back to the Skype API announcement page you will see that they missed the real story as "presence" isn't mentioned. Frankly I think it is the biggest story of all and they clearly need to get a team working on it. There's some additional client features that the developers and us users will require. The picture above should be worth way more than a thousand directory services! The fun is only just beginning.

I’ve been experimenting with different Skype Answer Phones. I wrote some specs over a year ago. And the simple answer is a well developed application will be a game changer… The general wisdom is you won’t leave your computer working to handle your telephony needs. An early look at SAM a Skype Answer Machine makes traditional solutions seem old fashioned. This is the second Skype API enabled application that I've reported on.

Think about your current phone answer machine. When you come home, you step through the door and hear it beeping away with new messages. You press the playback button… visually you can see how many messages were left but you can’t choose the order. You begin listening. The first caller leaves a message no number.. the second a message with a number…. You search madly for a pen that works and any scrap of paper… the next message is already playing…. Before you know it have to listen to them all again carefully trying to write down numbers and names.

Now what if you had:

Has all the other usual features.

SAM created by Alex Rosenbaum is still in beta. I had no problems with the install. I know he is still refining it for sound card compatibility. SAM requires the latest version of Skype so download it first. It's only available in PC format, sorry Mac fans.

What else may be engineered into this answer phone over time?

Skype is on the verge of obsoleting their text messaging system. Today a new Skype Beta 1.1 for Windows is available with mulitparty chat. The chat solution is very very elegant and solves the problem that all conference users have had (which chat client to use?). See using Skype Chat. It also has some nice memory features, including "recent chats" and "topic" capabilities. Plus... a big plus.... "When you are in a chat with several people (the new text chat in 1.1), the button in toolbar changes its shape and its tooltip is "Send File to All". And it does exactly what it says." from the forum. Try it.

Beta version available (advanced users only)
This beta version contains new features which have known issues. Before you download it, make a backup of your contact list and all data. New Skype users should not use this beta version. Download Skype for Windows

Another little discovery in the Skype Beta 1.1. As with many innovative changes you have to try it or have it put right in front of your before you say WOW! Almost from the beginning we have known Skype will introduce voice mail. Well.... seeing visually how it will work I immediate thought this is going to be very different. Anyone who thinks voice mail on Skype will just be a crippled form of telephony still doesn't get it. In fact voice mail on Skype is another telephony revolution. For what is emerging is not an application that is one to one telephony rather it is really many to many communications. Each step forward on that course further separate Skype from the telephone. It also makes going back impossible.

In the new beta right clicking on a contact provides the opportunity to send a voice mail. I seem to have a few contact for which it is active although it remains turned off and they don't go through. With a few Skype enabled Answering Machines emerging and ongoing developments in presence it's useful to think about how integrating voice mail into Skype will change behavior and build it's business.

Some Observations:

Voice Messaging: Voice Mail on the phone is a failure case. It means you didn't get through and were unable to complete the details of your call at that time. Voice Mail on Skype means that was the least intrusive medium to leave a message. It's friendly and brokers a better introduction than just using a text (now chat) message. As I can leave a message directly I may choose to use voice rather than text or write an e-mail. My perception is that Skype removes a barrier to sending voice messages. Thus I'd expect Skype voice mail to rachet up efficiency. It also further differentiates Skype from IM systems (re-establishing it's voice-centric nature.)

Voice Broadcast: I've never mastered the art of sending broadcast voice mails on the telephone. With the behavior learned in Skype to create both conference calls and now multi-party chat, Skype is training you in the one step method to send multiparty invites and greetings. Think it is not a big deal? Look at Swarming on SMS and now click fifty buddies and broadcast a voice message that says "party". Your friends come running. On the enterprise side... message from the CEO. It's huge and it will be adopted by both kids and companies alike. (It may just get the kids off AIM!).

Viral Subscription: Skype Voicemail is also likely to be viral. If I buy voicemail then you will need it to for the added benefits. Two immediate features. 1) Sending a voicemail may be more "polite" and less intrusive. It also enables all the broadcast features above. Thus corporate and mulit-profile / person accounts are on the horizon. 2) The voicemail function must enable differentiation between "buddylist", "registered skype accounts" and "free accounts". VoiceMail can intercept all non buddy list calls as a matter of course. Second, as it is less intrusive to leave a voice mail (and it won't be ringing on their desk disturbing them) in many instance a voice mail will be more appropriate than a text message. Example an update they don't need right now. Via your account you may also want to control the duration of the message that can be left. eg max 30 seconds and no repeat messages from the same caller within 10 minutes. We don't know what it will cost. (Voice mail should always be available to "buddies" for a paid subscriber!)

Social Useablity: Note that everything is virtually one or two clicks. When I blogged SAM I pointed out how it was a more intelligent answer machine, simply by enabling one-click call back and the ability to select the listening order. Voice Messaging on one click for many will be easier than sending an e-mail. Recently I've ended up on some conference calls where we are chasing the last person via SkypeOut on a mobile. It's been amusing to leave a multi-party voice message. With the voicemail functionality it will be possible to close a four-way conference call and leave a call wrap-up in a voice mail. Then it will be interesting to see how voice messaging becomes more social.

Timing: At the moment it is hard to time schedule a text message. They go in real time unless the other person is offline. However, voice mail (like sending a birthday wish) will make this potentially a simple matter. It's another service that builds on the premium service capabilities. It's also a good way to operate. For example in a department... understanding. send me... "want to see you about" chat messages at 10:00 am. Meeting beginning... agenda. etc.

This emerging functionality may be the piece that means enterprises can't ignore Skype. With voice mail and premium accounts the whole system becomes more effective. Concurrently with the Skype API pulling presence enhanced corporate directories is a relatively a simple matter. The global nature of these many to many conversations will also encourage the development of new translation services.

I still believe the premium services will be worth about 25 euros per annum (needs to enable multiple profiles eg five so I can deal with my kids!) with SkypeIn line charges extra. I'd think the voice mail only capability could be even cheaper. Skype may just be the first mass IM client to work out how to make money without advertising.

Introducing instructions for SkypeCasting. The front-end solution for podcasters to create great sounding audio recordings from interviews and conference calls using Skype. For the last few days I've been recording podcasts using Skype. As the call ends with a couple of clicks it is converted to mp3 and uploaded to a blog. This is a real bloggers solution providing podcasting in almost real-time without resorting to studios, or fancy gear. Let the New Year ring in with new voices, and new conversations. Audio and podcasting will make a difference. Let's get the thoughts out into the world. Innovate in 2005 --- start podcasting. This post contains my first podcast and the instruction on how (links at the end).

The SkypeCasters' recipe is simple and we have written it up in detail. Add together Skype, Virtual Audio Cables, Windows Sound Recorder, a simple Wav to mp3 converter MT_Enclosures and iPodder and you can be Podcasting later today! The solution will cost you $40.

Why podcast? Why record? Where are immediate opportunities.
There are many situations on the phone or Skype where you would like to be recording. Professional interviews are a prime example. Makes it easier to write up your notes later while you can completely focus your attention on the interview. Then we have the equivalent of "panel" discussions. The mini conference call fueled by good chatter and a great topic. Perhaps you are a budding poet wanting to spread a reading to a small group? Want to send a joint message or birthday greeting where the parties are dispersed, record a Skype conference call and e-mail the mp3. Similarly, finishing up a conference call --- create a simple 5 minute SkypeCast of the key action points. Blog it to your group. An hour in five minutes. It's over to you now. Tell us how you use it.

Approaching podcasting like this is different to staged professional recording studios, and big production values. We know that if you have a talented studio behind you then mixing and turning out a professional Podcast will be no problem. This is the solution for those with no money who are happy to create SkypeCasts on the fly.

What we have done: (GET INSTRUCTIONS)

Dave Winer picks up on using Skype for Podcasting and wants an easy solution. Actually I'd be interested to hear how the Mac community is working the Skype to mp3 to Podcast. Aren't Mac's supposed to be easier? Still the point i wanted to make was the immediacy in which audio can be blogged as quick updates or mini briefing. For immediate Eric Rice is leading with mobile phone calls to Audioblogs. It's one area where we are all going to need more stories to make it work and see it in action. It's still much easier to scan text, and yet audio brings a sense of presence unique to the medium.

Speaking of Skype, I wonder if they know how central they've become in the podcasting world? One feature to die for, a way to record a call to an MP3. I'd be happy to meet with people from the company. Are they in Silicon Valley?Scripting News: 12/21/2004

Dave followed up this note with a prod at all of us who don't read RSS 2.0 specs and just copy, paste and go. The points confirmed what I learned last night without reading the manual that RSS 2.0 only wants one enclosure per post. I don't read my manual for the DVD, the VCR, etc, --- just about anything I buy at least until I want to do more or I'm having problems. I almost never for software. I simply learn by using. So paste in MT-Enclosures and you are in business.

What did amaze me was the number of new subscriptions I got to the RSS 2.0 index.xml feed last night.

Following yesterday's post on SkypeCasting - recording call content on Skype for sending out for podcasts. I learnt a few more things and had some great suggestions.

One point of clarity. What we did with VAC virtual audio cables and Window Sound Recorder may seem like a kludgy solution. However it has one distinct benefit over other methods that have been shared with me to date. The benefit is I don't have to listen to myself amplified in my headset as I speak. Julian Bond's solution in the post comments provides just this solution for free without additional Skype profiles running. You will hear yourself speaking. Testing with Peter Cooper's approach provided the same result. I was also recently pointed to Replay Telecorder. Yet another answerphone / recorder to be added to what will become a very competitive space. I certainly got it recording both of us... I tried it with different profiles and such. In principle running it on another PC and dialing that PC into a conference call will give you the instant recording capability you need. However the problem remains. How do you use your laptop in the park to record an agreed improptu conversation and turn it into a podcast? Plus put it on air in minutes not hours. Cameron and Mick's approach is way more difficult. While I think they may have improved it, this was tough.

"Replay Telecorder", a little app which is supposed to record both sides of a Skype call (we live in different cities). Turns out though, when one of us hit "record", the other person would get terrible echo of their own voice and not be able to hear the recording party. After lots of mucking about and googling, we finally stumbled upon the idea of each of us recording our OWN voice using Audacity and then merging the two files later in post. It was about 11.30pm by the time we figured that out (90 minutes into the session). So we recorded for half an hour. That was the easy part. Then Mick compressed his recording as an 15 Mb mp3 (20 minutes), uploaded it to his server (20 minutes) and I then downloaded it (20 minutes). Then I merged the two files, that worked okay, and I added an intro and tail and re-compressed the whole thing as an mp3. cameronreilly: G'Day World

Find the right recorder and you can always use another PC as a silent partner in a three four or five way conference. Just set the mic on mute. You can even automate it with an answer machine like SAM don't enable you to record longer than a minute or two and may not convert the output yet into an efficient mp3 file. Separately, I'm going to write up what we really need, which is only partially about recorder and more importantly focused how tech may work to solve the "recording" challenge. For at the moment almost anything can be recorded. You also won't know when it is happening. Somehow I think it is something the Skype team wants to solve too.

Skype is heralding in a new world for potential recording solutions. For everyone that goes Skypecasting will want some protection. Who wants to be recorded and never get a copy? Should you get a review before it goes out. What sort of legal release is really necessary? What happens when the tape has mysterious blanks or is edited. Is there an original digital signature registry? How tamper proof will the records be. Get this right and Skype will have a role in the legal profession as well. Just imagine lawyers threatening lawyers with an IM contract confirmation and digital copies executed as the session closes. Things might move faster. Of course in Skype that requires authentication that the name really belongs to someone. Then these are things that the Skype API development team should be working on.

Think twice before you Podcast the conversational Skypecast mp3 you just created. Take a look at the tape recording law and you know we need a solution. There are many cases where recording is legitimate and it is certainly used in every call center (ostensible for training). See Tape-recording laws at a glance

While we are on the what's legal and not, I'm hoping a few legal eyes out there will take a look at the recording devices that are coming out. For as these devices capture your audio, with the Skype API they may also capture your buddylist, report on number of calls, time on the phone all sorts of things. Without due care you may find your PC transmitting info in the future that you were or aren't really willing to share.

Dear Santa, this is what I really really want and no one but you might have it. It's sort of hush hush, my friends might find it too practical or too geeky, so let me tell you I know you have a nice big iPod in the bag for me. Still Santa that is a little late I would have liked it last year and my son's had a mini since the first day. Let me whisper what I really want. It is really quite simple.

It's a cordless stereo headset with mic (not at all like the picture). It needs to be supremely comfortable so I can wear it for long periods of time. The battery will have to last a whole day even if it is being used lots. Maybe your elves can provide two batteries and a rapid charger to go with the USB wireless device I presume it needs. I don't like Bluetooth much and really want more range. If you must know I'm completely accustomed to using my Bluetooth headset with my mobile (great in the car) and now want some of those features at my desk. Even if I could work out how to connect my Bluetooth phone headset to my laptop and make it work with Skype I'd still not be completely happy.

I think your elves need to make one with good range, long battery life, great sound and low weight. I'd like it to be portable and thus robust. I want some simple buttons on it to control volume and switch from Skype to iTunes to "silent white noise". Oh and that great voice dialing feature I've got with my Bluetooth on my Nokia mobile, I'd like that and make it work with iTunes selection too.

Anything else? Well I'd like it to retail for less than a hundred dollars, but frankly given the amount of time I now use a headset I'd pay more for comfort and a "sound" that protects my ears from damage. Listening to all these podcasts is going to be very important and I should have to tell you how to make people happy.

Well really Santa, I've been good, I gave up chocolate and became a Skypeaholic - still that is harmless enough right? And that Santa is exactly why I want this headset and not the iPod although I realize one must compromise from time to time.

Oh and Santa, I know my friends would love some too!

Can I be really greedy now Santa? Perhaps you can also influence the guys at Skype and Apple to provide a solution that works like it does with WinAmp. (See Skype file / options /advanced/auto-pause win amp). Plus Skype when it is from a buddy or anyone.. perhaps you can let me know "who is calling" voice before I answer. Then activate a voice trigger for accept, decline etc. Maybe Santa you can fix it with them. They have all these alliances and I'm still having to hunt for my mouse to answer it. It's hard to finish when you encourage a wish list. I want this headset to be really smart. When i put it down.. I want it to ring out loud.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My letter last night to Santa got a little note back from the elves asking if this Sonorix bluetooth Stereo Headset is what I want? It looks perfect, then I'd really like to try it out first and I've never seen it in any of the stores. With it i could trade in my current bluetooth headset as well. I'm not sure what it retails for. Each time I click the link the price goes up. It is probably very expensive.

The SONORIX Bluetooth Audio Player OBH-0100 is the first product of its kind in the world to integrate Mobile, Wireless and Audio technologies into a multi-purpose entertainment device, thereby providing the user with the Ultimate Solution for handsfree and audio demands. It functions as Wireless Headphone for PC enabling 2 way voice communication(voice chatting) and direct streaming of high quality audio, Wireless Headset for handsfree operation with mobile phones, Standalone Audio Player for listening to music anytime, anywhere. SONORIX.com :::

Ok so who is going to buy it first? Plus Santa says I'm out of luck this year... it really is the iPod. Still I really really want to try it out. Let me try yours if you get one! I don't even think I've seen this on Engadget. See the Brochure.

Another paper on how Skype works. "An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer Internet Telephony Protocol" Orginal paper bye Salman Baset and Henning Schulzrinne. Plus the corresponding powerpoint. No new conclusions some nice detective work dated September 2004.

Now even the teachers are encouraging kids to Skype.. Enabling this can be done through the Skype API and some smart presence sharing directories.

World Class Schools, a collection of forty high schools and organizations all across the world, is introducing several innovative projects for 2005. One of the their most ambitious and innovative project is the Skype Foreign Language Lab Project. This project uses technology from the Skype Company and applies it to the classroom.

Cunningham explains that Skype technology allows person setting at one computer to call a person at another computer and then talk to that person for free. He adds that this allows for projects like their Skype Foreign Language Project to turn a classroom of computers into a language lab by allowing students in a language class the opportunity to call and talk with native speakers on a daily basis for free. i-Newswire.com

Talk Skype with Jerry Michalski and me at 10:30amd PST tomorrow. Jerry is a leading guru on navigating technology change. He's been hosting a series of 30 minute weekly calls.

Skype Me Yi-Tan Weekly Tech Call #14 January 3, 2005

Our guest will be Stuart Henshall, a Chuck Yeager of presence and communication technologies (and co-founder of the Yi-Tan Collective). His blog, Unbound Spiral, has become a hub for Skype information online. David Isenberg, our recent guest for Freedom to Connect, will join us again, too.

Created by the same folks that gave us KaZaA, the Napster file-sharing descendant, Skype mixes the presence and interactivity of Instant Messaging with audio quality often better than a phone call.

We will cover questions like:

What is Skype?

How is the Skype experience different from conventional telephony?

What are third parties building on top of Skype? Where are they all headed?

How might Skype change the dynamics of telecom in emerging markets such as China? Yi-Tan Collective on Skype Me

For more details refer "Yi-tan" for dialing-in instructions. For those wanting to try something a little different; dial in using SkypeOut and bridge others into the call using a conference link. :-).

I'll be attending CES the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Thursday to Saturday. First time visit for me. In particular, have my eye out for all things that may work with Skype and Podcasting. I know there are a few other bloggers there too.

I heard a rumor yesterday about a post by Andy Abramson on Skype and SAM. Frankly I believe he should print a retraction. I'll use the comments posted on Jeff Pulver's blog to add clarity. Jeff also passed on a posts without some more detailed fact checking. Tom Keating did the same. Industry leaders with their facts wrong.This is a shame. I also don't buy the slant on Andy's Skype Responds either. It's still out of context and there are no links on the post to the third party product SAM or Skype.

This is not a security hole in Skype. It is the result of using third party beta software in development for use with Skype. His problem.. that SAM connected two calls is listed in known bugs. As for the technical issue of recording "encrypted" calls this is complete hogwash. I can record all sorts of call and it makes no matter if it is an X-Ten softphone or Glophone etc. You'd also get the same result if you ran two softphone clients at the same time on the same soundcard and answered both calls.

Peter Macaulay comments: This is not a security flaw -- this is a feature! : - ) It is just as if you were sitting in my office and an incoming POTS call is picked up by my 20 year old answering machine. If the volume is up everyone in the secure space (my office) can hear the recording. Solution: Mute the answering machine. Remember how folks used this feature to screen calls -- "Hi it's Sally, if you are there please pick up". We just need to learn how to use these new tools. When you have a meeting you mute your answering machine -- that should be the default. Andy Abramson posted this as a Skype security flaw as if it were a programming memory leak -- no it is just the mixing of your voice on the speaker. I will leave my Skype/SAM running in my hotel room while I am at CES today -- just need to mute the speakers so I don't scare housekeeping -- and have my messages overheard! The bigger issue is that this implied flaw is from the Skype/SAM combo created by Skype publishing their API. I would hate to see Skype shut down their API which is already creating many new products such as the Siemens handset and also the Actiontec gateway just announced at CES this week. Just my thoughts on a cold night in Las Vegas

Andrew comments:
I was on the conference call taking place at the time Andy called and I would just point out that the version of SAM my colleague was using was Beta software (the version in use was 0.9.30, the then-current release) and that this is a documented known bug (http://www.freewebs.com/skypeansweringmachine/help.htm#33418068): "2) SAM answers incoming call even though user is in an active outgoing call. You get a audio mixture of the current call, SAM and the incoming caller." I am not diminishing the importance of Andy's point, merely adding context.

The Jeff Pulver Blog: Andy reports major bug in Skype Voicemail!

Just think. If you run two profiles (names that will get searched!) of Skype on your PC. Set them both to auto answer... and employ SAM as it is now. Then you could connect random strangers. Even more the first caller could keep an open line and wait for another person to call the other line. Then I guess that would make the listener a voyeur. Have fun kids! Now... is that a security flaw? I doubt it. Common sense works wonders too.

The future is voice messaging, not voice mail. Voice messaging only comes into its own when matched with "presence" applications like Skype. It's an important distinction, for voice messaging will be used differently.

Links in the forums and some recent press comment around Skype have included reference to voice mail. It's probably a natural reference as we talk about "left a" and "getting voice mail" all the time. However in Skype's case what they are soon to implement is not really voice mail. Rather it is voice messaging. It's a subtle yet significant difference and I hope their language comes to reflect it.

Here's why.
Voice Mail is typically a voice message that was left when there was a communications failure. The intended recipient either wasn't near the phone or didn't want to answer your phone call. You leave a voice message you have no sense of timing. We call this telephone tag.

By contrast the "voice messaging option" on Skype doesn't require that you try calling the person first. You have their presence, you know at what level of importance you want to put the interruption. In this world the voice messaging function is different. A voice message is less invasive, less disruptive to workflow.

As a long time user of Skype I seldom get "out of the blue" calls. If I do, these calls are from people not on my buddy list. Frankly it is better they all go direct to a voice mail preferably with a different message from the one I leave my buddies. The message for the "unknowns" is probably no soliciting, state your business etc. If you pass these hurdles etc. and it is important then text me.

Thus for the most part my buddies text first. As they / we have a crude sense of each others presence there is no need for failed voice mail. Most dialogue starts with chat. It may or may not escalate to voice. Thus voice mail is for the most part superfluous. More importantly forcing me to leave a voice mail when I know they are there is a little silly. Messages aren't supposed to play tag by design. Thus the context changes from voice mail to voice messaging.

I probably haven't made myself clear. Coming up. Send a Skype voice message without ringing the other person's Skype client. That is a major difference to the telephone.

In Skype, voice messaging is for the occasions when I don't want to interrupt someone's workspace. It's perfect for update messages, invites to the weekend party etc. Messages that will benefit from a vocal / personal touch. Yet they don't have to interrupt the work flow. Let's face it... if I work with someone all the time and they aren't on Skype, then leaving a voice mail isn't the best place to try and reach them or deal with an urgent problem. I either have to now deal with it myself, postpone until we are mutually present (text can work well here) or call their cellphone.

Voice mail implies dump it in a box. Voice messaging heralds in a new more efficient age. Voice mail shouldn't be in Skype's vocabulary. Similarly the current "test" recorded message should be re-scripted to reflect the changed paradigm. It currently refers to voice mail. However you would have to know a tester to have tried it.

Some numbers are worth repeating even if they are speculation. These numbers on Skype suggest huge growth for Skype over the next three years. Implies 30-50 million Skypers by year end.

Evalueserve predicts there will be 140 million to 245 million Skype users by 2008, compared to about 15 million total today. Those numbers exclude enterprise users who might switch to future Skype business offerings, which could reduce telcos' revenues even further. silicon.com

From a telecom perspective I'd ask whether these numbers remain conservative. Adoption curves have a way of tipping. We've not got to that point yet.

Have a bluetooth headset? Using one with your mobile? At CES BT headset demos were everywhere. So I returned home determined to use my Motorola BT headset with my laptop. Part of the desire was just wanting to lose the wires that are always tangled round the headset just when I want to answer an inbound Skype call. There remains lots of discussion and desire to connect phones to Skype. I took a look at some of those at CES too (details coming). Still if you alreay have a BT headset and can secure a BT dongle for the laptop then I'd suggest you try it out.

Just before Christmas I blogged that I wanted a Bluetooth Stereo Headset. Google didn't turn many up. At CES I counted and tried out four. These new BT Stereo Headsets allow media streaming and call answering. iTunes from the Laptop and take the Skype calls too... with no wires. I sense it will be a very attractive product. (I'll blog them separately)

So how are Skypers doing with Bluetooth? Here's some links to the forums. The desire is for them to work with your PC just like they work on your mobile. Click the earpiece to answer the Skype call. Not yet.. let's keep asking!

It's not always easy to get it paired with your laptop. I gave up 9 months ago. Then recently I had to reinstall my BT applications and low and behold it just works! Skyping without wires is even better. Now you can make that coffee and still stay on the line.

If you are buying one you check that it can pair with more than one device. I checked mine and found it will remember up to eight different connections so this is likely to be common. Still, I find it will only work with one device at a time. Good luck going wireless!

I've been trying out Skype's latest voice mail beta. It demonstrates to me just how important beta testing is. It's also better than specing the product to death before trying it out. So, despite right clicking the mouse and obtaining a "send voicemail" option, after using it I'm more convinced than ever that this is "voice messaging" (See also Future of VM) under development.

First a compliment. I keep saying that the audio quality is one of the things that differentiates Skype. Now it differentiates their VM capability too. It sounds better than what I get on my cellphone or pick up on the home answer machine etc. Skype adoption continues because the audio is better and thus conversations are ultimately more enjoyable.

Next, Skype voice messaging may get me leaving more voice messages. There are many messages I'd like to leave that I don't write, or can't call in because it is too late at night etc. A voice message that doesn't interrupt the other person is less invasive, while at the same time not necessarily tying me to a long conversation. Unfortunately in Skype's current beta test case you are limited to one minute. Making messaging to time a little more difficult is the lack of an elapsed timer.

This little VM feature may get many Skyper's paying a small premium for the service. By contrast a third party answerphone still rings, and unless the "recorder icon" is visible, exchanging VM rather than leaving voice mails with the person is impossible. You also have to leave your PC on for it to work.

On playback it's easy to find the message in the call list. Push to play and similarly for delete. You can play messages back in any order. A right click and you can respond with a VM or chat etc. Playback is instantaneous, the VM's is by this time resident on your machine, there is no waiting or server delay.

On the technical details. I only have a few observations so far. After the VM is uploaded by another party Skype appears to downloads the file as soon as you log back on again. I'm not sure to where this file is uploaded as part of the connection routine. I'd guess that Skype has a server(s) that only holds a file if the user is really offline. These messages are held in an encryped format, so whoever holds them couldn't break them open easily in anycase. Legally I'm sure Skype doesn't want to be a phone company and it's quite possilble they they never ever handle the voicemail. The software merely passes encrypted data in different file sharing formats.

This encouraged me to look for the voice files in the Windows/Documents & Settings/User/Applications/Skype/Voicemail/. Here you will find the compressed voice mail files. They are compressed roughly 10 to 1 vs a .wav file. What's interesting is viewing this folder while sending a voice mail. You can watch these files build and then one leaves. First you get apparent encryption information (while listening to the greeting of the person you are sending to), then your VM builds and then it leaves...

I've not tried running VM on two machines with the same profile concurrently, to learn if they synch etc. The latest chat does. I'm not sure what happens to VM.

A few things still need sorting.

Steve Gilmore shares a recipe for SkypeCasting on a Mac. It's a little more expensive than adding a few virtual cables to a Win PC. Still you purchase a fancy little mixer and a few cables in the bargain so it will set you back a few bucks. Then if you are in to podcasting, why not go for a star performance. As a set up it looks pretty straightforward and will enable you to become a podcast professional. I can't see any reason why this approach won't work for a PC too. So just to be hip I purchased the mixer which appeared good value. So I'll gain a little more control over the audio in future podcasts.

With Skype OS/X beta now supporting conference calls and GarageBand II shipping on Saturday, the time is nigh. Herea's Berlinda's Recipe, graciously assembled by David at my request because I'm too damned lazy to write it down: | Steve Gillmore>

I was granted 10 opportunities to share Skype VM with others. I shared it with Buzz and I have this wonderful message back from him asking for 100 invites more. I know he actually wants 1000! Of course, I wanted to share this news and send it back to Skype. It's the sort of voice message people get a kick from. In fact in my life I find I don't forward many messages. In the cell phone world I have a feeling that it costs me money and then I just don't have the feature set on my landlines. This seemed the perfect message to forward.

So, I tried to record it to a .wav file a couple of different ways and was unsuccessful. As I've already sent a voice mail while in a conversation with another... I thought I'd see if I could play it back in a conference call. That failed.I also tried Windows Sound Recorder with Virtual Cables etc. Didn't work at least not yet. In the end my solution was to send it to my iPod with iTalk recorder out the headphone jack and then iTunes copy it back to my PC. Clipped in Sound Recorder and convert to mp3. A little too hard. Still I have an mp-3 and now can provide the feedback. So, here it is. A short snip of Buzz's message to me on Skype Voice Mail. It's not the same Skype quality; it does deliver the message. Here is it... SkypeVMBuzz PodCast!

This is another example of capturing the audio stream and turning it into a broadcast. I'm not even sure if the laws for this are different to the "recording" laws, after all he not only left it on my recorder, he sent it purposely. He had to know I would listen to it, and that others could listen to it in all sorts of ways. Maybe this means.. that each VM should have the bloggers "tick"... eg message private, shareable, etc. Perhaps with Skype's encryption these messages can have an automatic expiry date, or a single play capability. These features would all add additional value to Skype VM. I did ask Buzz for approval!

My key learning on SkypeVM today was I want a record of whether or not I answered a VM. I've not looked yet although I don't think they are logged in the archive. Eg There was a VM between these text messages. Similarly I don't know when the other party listens although that may be worthy of a chat update. The minimum I'd like to see is a list of the VM sent. I'm not sure how I feel about the diskspace they would consume, however it may be nice to have my own copy and the capability to give it a topic name for the archive record. At least that would show in my archive and record when I sent it. From a delivery point of view Skype could confirm when all my VM's have been delivered even if they are not played. You could do some neat stuff with invisible etc so the delivered confirmation isn't provided until the person is "online" again.

I also had another plus experience with VM. Played "conversation exchange" over my GPRS, (GSM -T-Mobile cell phone connection to my laptop) having no trouble at all in sending quality VM over the slow connection. I'd still like to know when that minute is up. The one minute message like the one minute manager is also good discipline. It also means the messaging is still manageable and relatively quick on my GPRS. Even when I've had multiple messages. Now it's also an area that Skype could mess with. Over a certain length I think VM becomes less useful. However some may could set the time for 30 sec to 3 minutes messages. When you go to send a voice mail and the other persons message is downloading setting up the session and playing it could tell you the length of the message allowed, and then start running the clock. Later on you could even personalize it.

For me it was another case where messaging updates for road warriers are perfect in this format. Now I presume it is an aspect of how Skype encrypts the voice mail that you must get the download and listen to the other persons greeting everytime. I really would like to be able to create VM when offline. Even text messages would be helpful. Then for people on my buddylist I don't want to hear their greeting each time I leave a VM. I only want to hear the greeting when the greeting has changed. Thus changed greetings may be give more purpose. They can form a daily briefing, or update. It can even provide further information on the "presence" that you are already sharing. In that case VM vs chat may also be affected. This also suggests that the greeting for buddies should be different to the greetings for unknowns not on your buddylist.

Are rants and raves a good idea? This post could be both. Are they necessary, helpful, etc. We all do it in some way. Could RnR's empower change if captured easily and offered free distribution? I started this post thinking about customer complaints. Once you wrote a letter and you had to be really mad and it took a lot of time. It went to a corporate black hole and disappeared. it you did it well you get a refund or some type of action. Still unhappy? Then you tell your friends. Word of mouth. What if we gave word of mouth a fast forward function? What if we gave individual word of mouth a megaphone. Some blogs are sort of like that. Yet they aren't nearly as powerful as the personal storytelling, speaking the words.

What happens when you cross a free telephone / communication system with a free distribution system, turn it over to you and me and apply it to customer rant and raves. (This will be even more interesting when Skype enables Video Messaging!)

What happens if you use Skype to record a one minute VM rant or rave? Simply Skype it in. You can even set up a site with different SkypeMe tags and then automate the playback conversion. To make it work more efficient you can also ask them to rank some previous rants and raves as their contribution. You may even find there are people that want to collect rants and raves on certain products. It just needs a central directory! This creates a new genre and venue for providing customer feedback. Hate a product you want to call it in! You have a powerful story and you want to tell it. We want to hear the passion and understand the details. In the end a stream of expletives won't make the Hot or Not Rant n Rave meter.

It's not much good if you can't distribute them and find them. So we need PodTorrent or RantnRaveTorrent or something like it. So the site captures one-minute VM's and turns them into Podcasts that are rated and possibly managed by a Slashdot / Kuro5hin type site. The best rants on products (these could be positive and negative) simply bubble up. Then anyone who wants to hear the latest feedback on a product can enter a quick search and spend 10 minutes listening to the best rants or raves.

May change the nature of advertising, afterall who are you going to believe? The customers and users delivering it with passion or a 30 second ad? I know what works for me. Perhaps something can be done to the iPodder so when we hear a rant or rave, it asks us NetFlix style how you liked the last rants or raves. Now that would be powerful marketing information! Maybe our responses to rants and raves could be something that we could collect and share --- call it "experience capital" a subset of the social capital we share already. Gives a new meaning to audio feedback.

BTW I had an idea in this realm a few years ago. I called it Antiport. Antiport was a market for customer feedback. It used urls and wasn't nearly as friendly as just lodging a SkypeVM. Still merge these types of ideas. What I find rather appealing in the above is:

This post provides a "how to" on creating a personal iPod Radio that you can use in your Skype calls or simply leave running for your friends to call. The implications are disruptive, and the "ease of use" likely to further Skype's adoption when