VoIP 2008 Dawn of a New Year - Belated Post

I wrote the post below after finding I was listed as one of the top 25 VoIP bloggers in 2007. Then my recent blogging performance has been appalling and dropped me off the map. From time to time I just get blogger block and I’m trying to get back! I also write many things that I don’t post or leave sitting to contemplate. This was one post. It should have gone up with the New Year. Still every VoIP business should have a 52 week and 13 week horizon.

VoIP Dawn of a New Year:
I was surprised to find myself listed as one of the top 25 VoIP bloggers. Thank you! I still spend a lot of my project time in the VoIP space. I certainly don’t write about it the same way today, although there are plenty of opportunities for innovation left.

So I’ll kick off the New Year with a VoIP post and a commitment to blogging more both on VoIP and more broadly on how communication, commerce and collaboration come together. My number one interest remains how we use it and what uses and unexpected consequences / innovations may emerge.

First, I thought I’d put down my New Year’s wishes for Skype. Still my number one communications tool for business. Over the last year I’ve become a Mac addict. The Skype Mac client still lags behind. Ah well, my expectations aren’t very high. They don’t relate to paying Skype money or using it as a paid service. I’d like to be able to do the following.

1) add a contact listed in an open chat window to a conference call by right clicking on the contact. (not possible in Mac)
2) in a conference call where one member has dropped… click the multichat conf call button and have Skype smart enough to know I want to reconnect the missing person.
3) I’d like to see video conference chat (there’s no good reason why this isn’t available at this point, the latest high qual video uses lots of bandwidth - just reduce screen size for multi-party options.)
4)Allow me to stream video or other content into a video conference call as a third channel.
5) Provide a mobile solution I can actually get excited by.

This list is one that says I’ve given up on real innovation at Skype. (Their continued dependency on Voice Mail vs enabling Voice Messaging - typical). Skype still has a useful directory of my contacts however the opportunities to extend how I use it and what I could do are now years late. Skype does have excellent sound quality and the video 1 to 1 is as good as anything I ever use. The combined package remains a best in class. Still the innovation has moved away (Truphone and Mobivox are examples) and the “thought” machine of people thinking about what else we can do is certainly in hibernation.

Three moves that would shake the VoIP world from Skype in 2008 would be:

1) Provide a SIP account - (charge for it $5 for the year / free with a $$$ SkypeOut etc.). Where would I put this to use? Mobile. Now Skype can ring my WiFi enabled mobile. I no longer have to think about Skype phones etc. I can easily integrate it with Jabber chat etc. (My life’s going that ways anyways!)

2) With same account provide an email account too. Allow me to forward to any email of my choice. Enable other content push options via XML-RPC. In today’s world we have six forms of communications. 1)Live video, 2)voice, 3)short messaging push formats (text, chat), 4)status updates short push messaging (RSS, twitter, Facebook status) and 5) post formats (email, xml-rpc / blogs!) and 6. attachments - file transfers. Skype could fairly easily be my channel agnostic communication navigator. It’s just my communication is no longer about making calls.

3) Enable Video Conferencing and add new functionality to the API. When I can get YouTube videos in seconds on an iPod Touch in an elegant fashion and can share them in Starbucks (almost the lack of speakers is a real negative - shared headphones is not cool) I should be able to do the same in Skype. Bringing Video content into Skype would be very cool. Now I’m guessing the problem is Joost and “rules” re the IP; well great opportunity for another company like SightSpeed to pioneer.

Now more broadly VoIP is equally boring. Do any tracking on VoIP and you will find that Skype still gets many times the mentions in the blogosphere. At least thinking outside the box is still possible for anyone outside Skype.

These areas are interesting to me.

A) Presence - Lifestreaming of presence is emerging and is now dis-intermediated from communications. We will see the emergence of Green and Red relating to the type of communications functionality available. However, the “context” no longer rests with Skype, VoIP, Mobile operator etc. It’s resident elsewhere and we are going to define it and control it. The extreme is a live video feed.

B) Directories. The White pages and Yellow pages long ago ceased to be relevant. I still want a directory aggregator. I’m never going to have all my buddies on Facebook, or on LinkedIn etc. I think the real revolution in directories is coming. It will become more apparent in 2008. The only directory I really want is your name and types of channels open to me. Other than that I am completely channel agnostic. 2008 will see the world move beyond “click to call” it’s reaching it’s obsolescence point.

C) Billings and Records. We’re yet to see any company really do things that are revolutionary in this space. Apple’s Visual Voice mail is rudimentary and Skype’s own Voice Mail demonstrates just one records area. Call recording is another that is just archaic. How the caller is presented is another etc.

D) Identity: I’m going to step out on a limb and say “Identity” is a red herring. I already have an identity and I don’t need any one service to help define it. After working hard on “one identity for all communications” I believe the technical solutions like http://xri.net/=stuart really aren’t that compelling. There is only one =stuart and yet there are many that would say I am Stuart or Tom, or etc. Names matter. OpenID is at least a little more compelling.

E) Bridges: Conference bridges. Three and multi-way calling. Skype still remain one of the few successful ways to create an impromptu conference call. One reason is the ability for anyone to see that the incoming call is a conference. I experimented years ago with iPodRadio - putting music into Skype calls. Poor audio codecs still present a challenge, however the future for both video and voice includes bringing in additional content. Perhaps you don’t want my YouTube video playing in the background. Then again maybe it provides enhanced context just like the TV or music playing in a house. We broadcast what we are playing by name although not often the sound and visuals too. It’s coming.