Download Skype app for iPhone 1.0.1 from iTunes

Download from iTunes app store.

Unless you're from Canada. "THIS APPLICATION IS NOT AVAILABLE IN CANADA AND THE USER WARRANTS THAT THEY CANNOT DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION FROM CANADA."

tags: skype, itunes, app, apps, store, download, iphone, itouch

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

Hat tip: Clive and Steven from the 3rd Party Skype Software public chat.

Apple, AT&T hobble Skype for iPhone 3 Ways

BBC News' Rory Cellan-Jones is right when he asks Is Skype on the iPhone a big deal? 

1. No-VoIP Clause (Wi-Fi tethered). Apple's deal with AT&T (and presumably Apple's other carrier partners) forces Apple to force Skype off of mobile networks for voice or video calls. So Skype can only make or take calls when connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi.
2. No background apps (no Skype dialtone). Apple's iPhone OS prevents multiple apps from running. So I can only have Skype dialtone when it is in the foreground. You need Skype dialtone, connection to the Skype network, to share presence, to get chat updates, to receive Skype calls. When iPhone OS 3 launches at the Apple WWDC, this may get better.
3. No eye (no video). Apple doesn't have a camera looking at the user. Needed for video calls.

So Skype for iPhone is less than what it could be. Will customer pressure change AT&T's and Apple's attitudes? 

See the only Skype for iPhone video demo, courtesy of the BBC.

tags: skype, apple, iphone, att

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

Must Go DC event: Freedom To Connect

David Isenberg's Freedom To Connect is to US public telecom and datacom policy what Lee Dryburgh's Emerging Communications Conference is to world telecom strategy and technology.

F2C is thought leadership. It's creative. It's intimate. It's diverse. It's the place to have your assumptions challenged. It's great hallway. It's a community that lasts all year. And f2c shows the enthusiasm of its founder for rabble rousing and plain truths.

F2C brings together true believers and pragmatists, technologists and technocrats, insiders and revolutionaries. It's an amazing time in a relaxed atmosphere.

This is a time of tectonic change in Washington. Hear and be heard on the pressing issues of 2009 and beyond.

If you're in DC, get off the Silver Spring Metro stop this morning and walk to the AFI Silver Theatre. It's worth your time and money.

tags: f2c, freedomtoconnect, f2c09, conference, event, access, net neutrality, netneutrality, censorship, fiber, green, edemocracy

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

+iPhone: Updating the Skype Product Family mindmap

Added Skype for iPhone to the Mobile Software branch of the Skype Products mind map.

UPDATE: 30 March 2009: Added Skype For SIP, Skype for iPhone, Skype co-brand clients, Skype for Asterisk SDK. Changed from eBay extension to eBay toolbar.

tags: skype, iphone, products

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

Skype for iPhone – the screenshots

Slide show: (screenshots below)

Splash screen:

Connecting:

Contact list:

Contact profile:

Recent conversations:  

A chat:

Calling:

In a call, speaker on:

In conference call:

Conversation history:

My profile:

Set profile picture:

screenshot credit: Skype.

tags: skype, iphone, screenshot, screenshots, pictures, apple

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

16 Skype Mobile @ CTIA fantasies

1. iPhone gets a Skype Lite client.
• [Hat tip to Om Malik's creative? sources.]
2. Apple buys Skype.
• Skype is what iChat could have become with funding and management support. Although we're still waiting on multiparty video.
3. Skype Lite For iPhone OS 3, later this year.
• The best Skype experiences need push and sync services you'll find in 3.
4. Verizon buys Skype.
• Or another US mobile carrier. 0% growth in wireless minutes, 20% growth in data; time to sell services that drive data growth.
5. Three US carriers will sell low end Skypephones this year.
• Maybe if carriers won't spend a few billion to buy Skype, they'll partner to build data plan sales and consumption.
6. Skype asks the new FCC to force mobile Carterfone rules on US carriers.
• A new administration could be very interested in the political appeal of consumer-friendly rules.
7. Google buys Skype.
• Would complement Google Voice, Goog411, Google Talk, Android and all the other realtime conversation projects, filling in gaps and serving non-Google customers. Skype's new evidence-based management culture might fit too.
8. Cisco buys Skype.
• Telepresence at the high end, WebEx in the bigco, Skype everywhere else.
9. Skype Lite now supports video.
• I wish. Completely depends on the handset, on features turned off/on by carriers, on the quality/capacity of 3G.
10. Rupert Murdoch buys Skype.
• Skype already partners with MySpace, a NewsCorp company. Could Skype branded mobile and desktop tools help sell other NewsCorp television, sports, business, and games content?
11. Skype launches DENIM, a new video codec for mobiles.
• Skype depends on On2 for video codecs. How long before Skype decides it's better to own than to rent? Skype's SILK codec proves they've decided that before.
12. Microsoft buys Skype.
• MSN and Windows Live Messenger are both insanely popular IM products, but neither of the ad-supported products convinced people to use voice, video, or PSTN features. After Microsoft buys Yahoo!, they may have enough loose cash to pick up Skype. Skype has a newly upgraded client for Windows Mobile.
13. Skype mobile clients support video calls.
• An oft requested feature.  
14. Nokia buys Skype.
• Just a long ferry ride from Tallinn. It would explain Nokia's Barcelona announcement to ship smartphones with Skype later this year. Skype has mobile products all three Nokia OS's: Symbian, Maemo/Linux, and java.
15. Skype becomes location-aware.
• Sort those contact lists by proximity. Update mood messages automatically by zone ("leaving the office"). Filter directory search results. 
16. Oprah buys Skype.

We'll see what really happens.

tags: skype, ctia, ctia09

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

Wishlist: Solve Skype SPIT (Spam over Internet Telephony)

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks again!

Katherine Robinson
Determined But Discouraged Skype User

see also:

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

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

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

Community Wishlist: Skype Chat to Email Listserv gateway

@PacificIT community leader Robert Sanzalone and I have been chatting about Skype and its use as social software. Robert penned this blogworthy bit that started about a Skype client on the iPhone. Robert:

As you saw me mention, I have literally been OFF SKYPE waiting for this client to appear from SOMEONE and it still hasn't arrived.

About half a dozen apps exist to do various basic functions of Skype such as one-to-one text and voice. A few can now also connect with the Skype Out/In services as well.

With the recent development of the latest client focusing on video, it looks once again that "sexy" wins over practicality and what is really needed to keep this service at the front line. I'm almost expecting announcements for new deals with Friendster and Plaxo any day now (yes, it's that bad).

Regardless, my hope is time, money and effort isn't being put into making a VIDEO CLIENT for the iPhone before group chat is solved. I think building community around the client is far more important and the fans keep coming even though Skype seems to be telling them to go away.

My alternative challenge to the community is to look at other common technologies which can bridge this gap.

My crosshairs are on email. Understood and common.

One of the most attractive features of Chatterous was the ability to completely interact in a dynamic IM group discussion exclusively by email. It was (and is) amazing.

BUT.. the name recognition and trust is not as well established as Skype. I PERSONALLY found out people would rather stay with the tried and true recognized name than to move a whole community to a platform or service no one has heard of or is interested in experimenting with.

How to interact with email?

Again, the lesson comes from Chatterous. Essentially, you can choose how to have digested messages sent from a group chat to your email account which you can then react to, or not.

The email sent in completely blends in with the rest of the chat. I was amazed even with the latency of tapping out an email minutes after the initial digest was sent me that the conversation wasn't completely backward (since there are frequent delays, even with real time IM chats).

Now, apply this capability to a mobile device with email capability, and you have the whole issues of a "Skype group chat client" solved. You CAN interact with a group chat even without a specific client on the iPhone, or ANY mobile device anywhere in the world. A sweet solution.

Though I'm not a developer, I'm told time and time again the API in Skype does give the ability to make these types of toys. I have no way to verify this one way or another.

All I know is, it's JUST NOT HAPPENING. I was looking for a few smart people to get on the ball and do something about it.

Turn off your darn video cams and let's get the community together first.

tags: skype, email, wishlist, listserv, mailing list, community, collaboration, chatterous, webmail, bbs, chat

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

TV commercial from Skype

 

sfx:

soft sound of fast typing on a computer keyboard

text:

Sarah had a baby girl at 6:30am

sfx:

Skype water drop, into music

father's voice over animation:

She's beautiful, so beautiful. We're calling her Laura. We think she looks like a Laura. She already has a full head of hair.

animation fades to father's face, pulling back revealing father, Sarah and Laura are on a wide-screen video call being watched by grandparents

father

and she's got my eyes. luckily for her, everything else is pure Sarah.

announcer:

With free Skype-to-Skype video calls, you can be right there with them, wherever they are.

fade to slide:

Skype logo + "Free at Skype.com"

The ad reinforces existing brand elements: sounds of people using the product, the transition from IM to voice to video, family connections, and life events. Oh, and clouds.

We won't know for a while where or how much air time Skype is buying. English accents suggest this ad is targeted to the UK.

One thing: the Skype video used by the family has a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, not available with today's consumer webcams. Is that a buried product announcement or a vision of the future?

Hat tips to Dan Furrier and Kara Swisher.

tags: skype, ad, ads, advert, advertising, tv, television, video, marketing, promotion

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

BCP Management by Role: A Thing I Really Want from Skype for Business

Business Control Panel (BCP) Management by Role.

When a manager leaves the company and takes her Skype account with her, will the company lose access to its control panel? To its funds? To its records? To its control over control panel membership?

BCP "ownership" should belong to a defined role, an alias, perhaps even a shared alias.

A manager, their manager, the telecom manager, someone from HR and someone reporting to the front line manager could share that role.

Skype's current architecture prevents proper:

• Succession
• Delegation
• Supervision
• Audit 

Without management through roles, powered by aliases, Skype's BCP will create problems outside of very tiny, unusually stable organizations.

 

See Things I Really Want from Skype for Business:

• Aliases
• Alias Transfer 
• Provisioning
• Share Aliases 
• Multiple Companies per Account

 

Skype is a productivity and collaboration tool, well suited for workplace. Millions of people use Skype at work. Skype for Business is a Skype team and product family serving small and large organizations.

tags: skype

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Multiple Business Control Panels Per Company: A Thing I Really Want from Skype for Business

Multiple Business Control Panels Per Company.

The power in Skype for Business lies in Skype's Business Control Panel (BCP). The BCP is where Skype gives you fund multiple Skype accounts and manage SkypeIn phone numbers for your organization.

Today, you are allowed only one BCP per company.

It's time to decentralize authority.

• Give authority to managers and team leaders closer to the people who use the service.
• Permit companies to create BCPs to match their formal organizational structure.
• Permit teams to create BCPs to match their informal organizational structure.

Benefits to Skype:

• More customer eyes on spending and activity.
• More awareness by first line managers of Skype and it's uses at work.

Benefits to Business:

• Allows sponsors to respect privacy expectations within a company by limiting the size of BCP membership and visibility of BCP activity data and billing details.
• Roll up aggregate statistics and financials across a company to better understand spending and activity by department.

 

See Things I Really Want from Skype for Business:

• Aliases
• Alias Transfer 
• Provisioning
• Share Aliases 
• Multiple Companies per Account

 

Skype is a productivity and collaboration tool, well suited for workplace. Millions of people use Skype at work. Skype for Business is a Skype team and product family serving small and large organizations.

tags: skype

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Voice VPNs Over Skype: Paying Less for Private Lines

Guest post by David Tang, Global VP at Skype partner VoSKY, and Craig Coward.

Voice Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have long delivered real benefits to businesses with multiple sites or branch offices. As well as free calls between sites, they enable call break-out to the public network at the point closest to the call destination – saving on charges for long distance calls. They also support global numbering plans for organizations, making internal comms easier. VoIP VPNs have taken these benefits a stage further, enabling calls and data to be routed on the same IP infrastructure.

The downside is, these private networks have traditionally proved expensive to deploy and maintain. In the 1990s, they used to demand dedicated private leased lines to link offices – each costing thousands of dollars per year to rent from the telcos.

Paying to go private

In recent years, with the advent of IP PBXs, Voice VPNs could be enabled over existing IP links, just like data VPNs, giving a secure site-to-site link that is set up as needed. This drastically cut the costs of renting dedicated lines, but with a drawback.

Typically, an organization has to deploy IP PBXs from the same manufacturer at every office, to enable VPN networking. This in turn demands expensive rationalization of premises equipment. In addition, though not as costly as dedicated leased lines, expensive MPLS-based links have to be installed.

So the choice has been to either pay for the ridiculously costly dedicated lease lines, or deploy interoperable IP PBXs and MPLS links at every branch, at considerable costs. And that’s before you even consider issues such as encrypting voice traffic across the private network, or handling traffic across your network’s routers and firewalls.

These issues have typically made voice VPNs a viable option only for larger organizations or enterprises. However, there are other options now available to businesses, without the high cost of entry.

Creating a Skype Voice VPN

By using Skype, the world’s largest and most reliable VoIP network, to form the VPN, the network itself is available for free. And with PBX-to-Skype application gateways that link any office phone system (whether traditional digital switch, or IP PBX) to Skype, the benefits of voice VPNs are available to almost any business, for a low one-time upgrade cost. What’s more, businesses don’t have to swap out or replace their existing investments in PBX equipment – which is useful in the current lean times.

So how does this work? How does a business build its voice VPN using Skype and reap the benefits?

First, the business deploys a PBX-to-Skype application gateway at each location. Depending on the company’s needs, the gateways add anything from 4 to 30 Skype lines to the company’s existing PBX that can be picked up and transferred between extensions like an ordinary call. Employees simply dial 8 for a Skype line, or 9 for an ordinary line. What’s more, the gateways work with virtually any model of analog, digital or IP phone system.

The company can then create a global numbering plan for their Skype voice VPN, enabling employees to use extension dialing to branch locations on the network. These site-to-site calls are free over Skype, and long distance calls handled using SkypeOut to reduce costs. The gateways also centralize Skype provisioning and management, giving IT managers full control over its use, eliminating the need to install Skype on each PC. This means no need for headsets – all Skype voice functions are delivered to users’ PBX handsets.

Enable PBX Remote Access to the Voice VPN

IT managers can enable remote access to the corporate voice VPN, by simply installing the free Skype for desktop or Skype for mobile software client on the remote workers desktop or laptop PC. With PBX remote access, road warriors and remote workers can securely access to the voice VPN, enabling free calls to and from employees at the corporate or branch offices. This solution is much better than traditional softphone solutions due to Skype’s ability to seamlessly traverse NAT/Firewall and its superior voice quality over the open Internet.

Build Voice Extranet for Customers and Partners

With today’s global economy, companies small and large have supply chains that cross national and international borders. Traditionally, voice VPNs (legacy with leased lines or IP-PBX enabled), were designed to focus on intra-company communication and did not support connections to partner networks.

However, with the ubiquity of Skype and PBX-agnostic Skype gateways, it is easy to extend the corporate voice VPN to include an extranet for free and secure partner communication. All the partner company has to do is to connect a PBX-to-Skype gateway to its existing PBX and have the main Skype ID of the partner site programmed into the PBX-to-Skype gateway’s address book.

This will allow both companies to make and receive calls for free between their offices by simply dialing a speed dial number, which is mapped to the Skype ID. In addition, the enterprise can also set up advanced click-to-talk functionality directly from company websites or HTML emails, enabling online browsers to call the company directly, at no cost to them using Skype.

Calling up benefits

A Skype voice VPN, like its traditional counterpart, eliminates costs for inter-office calls. It has the key advantage of working with any existing infrastructure, seamlessly connecting disparate phone systems without extra costs for the network links.

In terms of traffic management, Skype works transparently behind routers and firewalls without needing any complex configurations or set-up. Furthermore, all Skype calls are secured using strong AES encryption, to protect an organization's privacy – just like a secure data VPN.

There’s free, secure remote access to the corporate VPN for road warriors, which enhances productivity while helping reduce communication costs. Companies will be able to further reduce their telecom costs with a voice extranet that enables free and secure calls with partners in their supply chain.

These all help to make the Skype voice VPN solution a compelling proposition.  So while setting up a private network for voice may not be completely priceless, it’s a solution that will quickly deliver a return on investment – and will go on delivering savings and benefits.

tags: skype, vosky, vpn, voicevpn, gateway

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

Tencent's QQ IM triples Skype's dialtone

Tencent Holdings (SEHK 700) published their 2008 financials last week. Among the highlights: stats we can compare with Skype. QQ has more than twice as many registered accounts and more than three times Skype's simultaneous online users. While QQ has many rich instant messaging features, it's not a voice platform. QQ has grown about ten percent quarter over quarter in peak activity since the end of 2008-Q3 when we reported they had 45 million simultaneous online.

For the 16-day period ended 31 December 2008 (in millions), Tencent reported:

Registered IM user accounts (at end of period)	891.9	403
Active user accounts (at end of period)	376.6	NA
Peak simultaneous online user accounts (for the quarter)	49.7	15
Average daily user hours	710.9	NA
Average daily messages(1)	4,282.6	NA

(1) Average daily messages include messages exchanged between PCs only and exclude messages exchanged with mobile handsets.

Nearly all of QQ's users are Chinese readers and speakers. China has an Internet population of 298 million people, Taiwan adds another 15 million.

How can QQ have more registered and active accounts than people who have Internet? China's enormous cybersalon culture. Some estimates say China has as many as 300 thousand Internet cafés of 100 seats or more, about half unlicensed. So for each person with home or work Internet connection, another person drops by a local Internet café.

QQ is bigger and different than Skype and remains one of Skype's biggest rivals in Skype's biggest market.

tags: skype, qq, tencent, stats, metrics, performance, financials, china, cn, tw, taiwan, chinese, dialtone, accounts

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Skype for SIP == Skype for Asterisk DOA?

Guest post by Jason Goecke, Adhearsion

Today Skype announced Skype for SIP (SFS). Put simply, enterprise telephone systems may now interconnect with the Skype network to receive calls from the Skype network and place calls to SkypeOut. All without the need to install any special hardware or software on most modern enterprise phone systems (IP-PBXs to be more specific). Skype’s new enterprise targeted connectivity uses SIP, the industry standard for VoIP interconnection. SIP already powers the bulk of Skype’s revenue, via SkypeIn/SkypeOut, so this is a logical progression to take advantage of the large scale infrastructure already in place at Skype.

This is a tremendous move by Skype and one I have contended for years was necessary for them to make headway in the enterprise. I applaud this step. There are plenty of great posts out there covering this already, including the one by @danyork on Disruptive Telephony.

What does this mean for Skype for Asterisk (SFA) announced last September? At best the value of SFA has been significantly reduced by this announcement.

Previously SIP interconnection to the Skype cloud was given to the rarified group of larger players such as Voxeo, Tellme, Genesys and others. SFA was the first time this access was going to be brought to the world of open source telephony developers through Asterisk. This provided an immense opportunity for the Asterisk developer community to create new applications to take advantage of this, which lead me to invest time to participate in the closed beta for SFA still underway.

The SFS announcement this morning has just marginalized SFA to applications that benefit from direct dialing of Skype users from Asterisk and from basic presence updates from the Skype network. Gone are the benefits of providing Skype/SkypeIn inbound calls to the enterprise, SkypeOut trunking, etc. More so, SFA is at a disadvantage since you will have to pay a per channel (simultaneous call) license fee on top of any SkypeIn/SkypeOut costs. Further, I suspect that the number of SFA channels available to a single account will be limited for the same reason that SFS does not do SIP to Skype dialing, so that no one may provide large scale alternatives to SkypeIn.

All of this has really taken the wind out of the SFA sails before it even had a chance to make it to a public beta. Digium must now look to quickly add new features. Such as advanced presence information, instant messaging, the SILK codec and others, if they hope to salvage their own investment in the development of SFA to date. While I understand these things take time, the lethargy of getting the SFA to market does not bode well for rapidly trumping the SFS announcement.

Time will tell.

tags: asterisk, ip-pbx, sfa, sfs, sip, skype, skypeforasterisk, skypeforsip, voiceoverip, VoIP, jasongoecke

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Skype dial tone: 17 million simultaneous online

Guest post by Jean Mercier, the Skype Numerologist

Again a million milestone of concurrent users online today: 17 million at 17h34 GMT (my clock in the screenshot is GMT+1)!!! This is the fifth time since September 2008! This is quite remarkable, because, as mentioned before in this blog, it is also the first time we add more than 5 millions in a September – June period.

Exciting times ahead! And a pity that Skype doesn’t tell us from which countries the growth comes from, although they unveiled a little bit of the picture some weeks ago. They gave much more detailed information in the past, before they were eBay! See for instance this blog post from April 2005: Whose net is it anyway?. First hand information from the CEO himself!

tags: skype, statistics, stats, trends, simultaneous, online, concurrent, dialtone, charts

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Skyecandy: The Whole World Can Speed Date For Free

OK, this looks fun. A team from NSW opened their beta to Skyecandy, a speed dating site that uses Skype video. "The more you share, the better you pair."

I really like the "Skyecandy" name but hope they have a decent IP attorney.

tags: skype, voip, dating, speeddating, skyecandy, au, australia

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Skype For SIP: Big Money, Skypeless, Brand Destroyer

Skype For SIP (SFS), announced today, is really two Skype for Business services.

And a huge problem.

The services:

Skype-Name-to-SIP-Address. Skype for Business users map one Skype name to one IP address. So people can Skype your Skype name but your SIP PBX rings.

SIP-Switch-to-SkypeOut. Use SkypeOut for all the calls going out of your SIP telephone system. Billed at Skype's typical per-minute rates: higher than what you can buy in bulk, much cheaper than what you get from your local phone company.

Both are controlled through the Skype.com web site and setting on your telephone switch. Business Control Panels let organizations distribute money to multiple Skype accounts.

Between the two parts, SFS gives Skype an excuse to get in front of small business telecom buyers. It offers cost savings and predictability on outbound calling. It provides simple routing of incoming Skype calls to your call center. No hardware beyond your SIP PBX. No software to install. You don't even need to use Skype.

SFS is the second workplace product Skype is launching this year. Skype For Asterisk (SFA), still in closed Beta testing, is Asterisk add-on software running on your Asterisk telephone switch. SFA gives your phone switch the ability to send and recognize Skype instant messages and presence. SFA also lets programmers integrate Skype into other Asterisk programs, like phone trees and speech recognition.

Distribution.

SFS will be distributed on Skype.com and by Skype "service partners", local firms that install and repair phone systems. Service partners will receive commissions from Skype on minutes purchased by customers they refer to Skype. Skype will send referrals to authorized service partners.

Skype does not have a service partner network now. A 2007 project tried to distribute Skype for Business starter packs. 

The Strategic Opportunity.

Skype For SIP home page on launch day, 23 March 2009

Skype is opening doors with SFS.

They're setting up a distribution channel and meeting enterprise IT/telecom people. Skype's brand may entitle it to sell Skype-flavored minutes at a premium. All of this should be good for Skype's sales.

How big is the opportunity?

The normal VC math: 100 partners worldwide (could be 1000 easily) x 100 small companies per partner (could take time) x 1000 minutes/month (an extremely low number) * $0.20 per minute = $2 million/month. This run rate could grow easily to $20 million/month in a year. 

That's the quarter billion dollar per year upside.

The Strategic Downside.

The downside is huge.

Skype For SIP is barren of everything that makes Skype meaningful and invaluable in the workplace.  

Skype is selling cheap, convenient minutes to enterprise plumbers. Legacy audio quality. No audio, video, conferencing, buddy lists, file sharing, presence, or software extensions. SFS is the commoditized low end of VoIP.

With SFS, Skype defines itself to the channel and to its business customers as a "value" provider, helping companies shave pennies, competing with the "minute stealer" industry. While there's money to be had, Skype For SIP

This abandons Skype's central tenets: 

• Be a live, realtime social network.
• Enrich the quality of conversation through higher quality and multiple modes.
• Build Skype Dial Tone by having more individuals log in for more time each day, earning network effects.
• Be the tool people use for workplace collaboration and coordination. 

Skype For SIP is a Skypeless product.

Nobody at a company which uses SFS needs to use Skype. Nobody needs to turn on a client or use an embedded Skype phone or download Skype Lite for a mobile.

In short: SFS undermines Skype's brand.

Warnings for 2009.

• No Emergency Calls. Calls to paramedics, police, and fire will not go through. Standard blocking by the Skype network. So configure your IP-PBX to keep a non-Skype connection open.
• Security sucks. No encryption for now. A Skype spokesperson wrote "at the start of beta, we do not support encryption due to the lack of support among most IP-PBX vendors. We will be adding TLS (encrypted signaling) and SRTP (encrypted media) during the beta period."
• ID Schism sucks. No way for users to tell if a Skype account is a "consumer" or a "business" or a robot account. No way to tell if a Skype user is seeing your IM or your presence or can see your video.
• English-only. One language for the web site and documentation. No internationalization for a while.
• Digital Identity Lifecycle sucks. No way to transfer a Skype account (in the event of M&A, personnel change, for example) or to integrate this with your network/server management systems.
• Only One Skype ID per Company. So if you have more than one trademark, you're out of luck. If you've already secured your trademarked Skype name, you're in worse luck. Only Skype names created through the new service will work. This contradicts what a Skype source told Dan York.

See also:

• Skype Now Means Business, Friends The SIP World, Om Malik, GigaOM
• Skype Targets Businesses to Ring Up New Revenue, Geoffrey A. Fowler, Wall Street Journal
• Skype tears down more walls with "Skype For SIP", Dan York, Disruptive Telephony
• Business Long Distance: Death by 1,000,000 PBX's, Jim Courtney, VooW
• Techmeme coverage.

 

Thanks to Ian Robin, who runs sales and marketing for Skype for Business, for the briefing.

And, as we often do, the full text of the news release.

Skype opens up to corporate SIP communications

New beta program brings Skype voice calling to SIP-based PBX systems

LUXEMBOURG, March 23, 2009 — Skype today announced the beta version of Skype For SIP for Business users. SIP, short for Session Initiation Protocol, is an open standard and the leading voice over Internet protocol used in businesses telephony networks at millions of locations globally. According to IDC, 438,000 IP PBXes were shipped worldwide in 2008.^*

Skype For SIP allows SIP PBX owners to benefit from Skype’s low cost calls to fixed phones and mobiles around the world, and to receive calls from Skype users directly into their PBX system.

Businesses can now be reached by the community of over 405 million Skype registered users through click-to-call from their business Web sites. The calls will be received through their existing office system at no cost to the customer. At the same time, businesses can benefit from Skype’s low-cost global calling rates when placing calls to landlines and mobiles worldwide from devices connected to their PBX systems. In addition, they can choose to purchase online Skype numbers available in over 20 countries to receive calls from business contacts and customers who are using traditional fixed lines or mobile phones.

“The introduction of Skype for SIP is a significant move for Skype and for any communication intensive business around the world,” said Stefan Oberg, VP and General Manager of Skype for Business. “It effectively combines the obvious cost savings and reach of Skype with its large user base, with the call handling functionality, statistics and integration capabilities of traditional office PBX systems, providing great economical savings and increased productivity for the modern business.”

"Businesses have been waiting for Skype to make a concerted push into the business space for a while,” said Rebecca Swensen, IDC’s Research Analyst, Enterprise Mobility and IP Communications Services. “Connecting to existing standards-based SIP PBXes is a good way for Skype to start doing so. It will be interesting to see how large companies change their thinking about the deployment of Skype within the network.”

Key Features

The beta version of Skype For SIP will enable business users to:

• Receive and manage inbound calls from Skype users worldwide on SIP-enabled PBX systems; connecting the company Web site to the PBX system via click-to-call
• Place calls with Skype to landlines and mobile phones worldwide from any connected SIP-enabled PBX; reducing costs with Skype’s low-cost global rates
• Purchase Skype’s online numbers, to receive calls to the corporate PBX from landlines or mobile phones
• Manage Skype calls using their existing hardware and system applications such as call routing, conferencing, phone menus and voicemail; no additional downloads or training are required

How to participate

The Skype For SIP beta program for business users opens today. SIP users, phone system administrators, developers and service partners are invited to apply at www.skypeforsip.com. Applicants will need to be businesses, have an installed SIP based IP-PBX system, as well as a level of technical competency to configure their own SIP-enabled PBX. The initial beta is available to a limited number of participants.

During the beta period all calls will be charged at standard Skype rates. Further pricing details will be announced when the product is fully launched later this year.

tags: sfs, sfa, skype for asterisk, skype for business, skype for sip, sip, skype

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Multiple Companies per Account: A Thing I Really Want from Skype for Business

Multiple Companies Per Account.

A Skype account is a person.

Let me be affiliated with more than one company.

I may have:

• a full time day job,
• bake cookies under my own name,
• help a friend's business on weekends,
• sit on the fundraising committee of my mosque,
• edit my professional association's newsletter, and
• support my kid's virtual lemonade stand.

No place in the real world does someone have just one enterprise affiliation.

We live in a buzzing swarm of many connections and groups.

When you ask people to choose just one, you shove them into the welcoming arms of competitors for every other relationship.

 

See Things I Really Want from Skype for Business:

• Aliases
• Alias Transfer 
• Provisioning
• Share Aliases

 

Skype is a productivity and collaboration tool, well suited for workplace. Millions of people use Skype at work. Skype for Business is a Skype team and product family serving small and large organizations.

tags: skype

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Share Aliases: A Thing I Really Want from Skype for Business

Sharing Aliases.

Nobody works 24 hours a day.

Companies still need to serve customers all day, every day.

They do this by sharing roles.

• On call neurosurgeon for a hospital.
• Help desk operator.
• Even the receptionist who takes a lunch break needs to hand off the role to another person.

The virtual equivalent:

• multiple people
• with their unique Skype accounts (account=person)
• able to share and use
• one or more common aliases (alias=role).

Let workers share roles and responsibilities through a Skype alias.

 

See Things I Really Want from Skype for Business:

• Aliases
• Alias Transfer 
• Provisioning

 

Skype is a productivity and collaboration tool, well suited for workplace. Millions of people use Skype at work. Skype for Business is a Skype team and product family serving small and large organizations.

tags: skype

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Provisioning: A Thing I Really Want from Skype for Business

Integrate and automate provisioning of Skype business control panel (BCP), Skype account, and Skype aliases.

So you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a quarter on per-seat-licenses for email, accounting, virtualization, commerce, manufacturing systems, tech support, operating systems, security systems, HR software, and the home-grown systems that make your business work.

Provisioning systems automate user account lifecycles across all those systems. You'll want to support lifecycles for:

• Skype accounts
• Skype aliases
• Skype control panels and company

Skype must integrate with the top provisioning products to make provisioning fast, cheap, reliable, thorough and automatic.

 

See also:

• Aliases
• Alias Transfer 
• Provisioning
• Share Aliases

 

Skype is a productivity and collaboration tool, well suited for workplace. Millions of people use Skype at work. Skype for Business is a Skype team and product family serving small and large organizations.

tags: skype

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Alias Transfer: A Thing I Really Want from Skype for Business

Transferability of Aliases.

I wear many hats at work. A Skype account's aliases should hold all my hats.

I should be able to:

• define a role (the person who orders office supplies, for example),
• use it (call and IM suppliers, build a contact list of suppliers, accumulate a call/chat history), and
• hand it off to another person when I'm no longer in that role.

This preserves continuity of relationships so work is not interrupted when I change roles or change jobs.

Enterprises spend billions and mount great efforts to define workflows that survive an individual's path through the organization. Skype, even with aliases, will break proven and well-automated roles, relationships, and contact channels if Skype aliases cannot be transferred as needed.

Web domains can be transferred. Email accounts can be transferred.

Let me easily get and give my aliases to other Skype users. 

 

See also:

• Aliases
• Alias Transfer 
• Provisioning
• Share Aliases

 

Skype is a productivity and collaboration tool, well suited for workplace. Millions of people use Skype at work. Skype for Business is a Skype team and product family serving small and large organizations.

tags: skype

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Review: IPEVO Wi-Fi Skype Phone

When most people think about using Skype, they probably envision a nerd with a headset sitting in front of his computer. Skype is primarily a computer-to-computer internet telephony product, but there are a few options for using your Skype service on more traditional handsets.

I have evaluated the VOIP841 from Philips before and was overall happy with the device, minus the OK audio quality. However, recently I heard about and received IPEVO's new Wi-Fi Skype handset for review.

This little unit is as small as most candybar mobile phones and contains the Wi-Fi chip directly in the handset. Contrary to the Philips VOIP841, which requires a separate base station along with the handset, everything with the IPEVO phone is housed on the handset itself.

This means you can take the IPEVO phone and use it wherever you can get a Wi-Fi signal for free Skype calls and ridiculously cheap calls to traditional landlines and mobile phones.

Opening the Box

First impressions with the IPEVO Wi-Fi Skype phone are postive. The black handset has a bright and readable screen and well-sized buttons that are used to navigate the handsets traditional Skype menus. Anyone familiar with the Skype user interface on a PC or Mac will easily be able to adapt IPEVOs implementation of them on the Skype phone.

The Skype handset takes about 4-5 hours to charge and after doing so, you are ready to assign the device to your wireless network and start making and receiving Skype phone calls.

Setup

On my home wireless network, I employ WPA-PSK encryption. When I tried to utilize the phone's wizard interface to join my Wi-Fi network, it had issues and would not properly connect. As a result, I had to manually select my home network and enter in the security setting and details by hand. After successfully joining the network, the phone prompts you to log in to your Skype account.

With the IPEVO device, you can either sign into your existing Skype account or create a new one directly on the handset without having to log into Skype on a computer. I thought this was a nice little feature.

One note about the IPEVO Skype phone: if you have special characters in your Skype or Wireless password, it is a little tricky to figure out how to input these into the phone. When you press the pound key, aka #, you are presented an on-screen menu with all the special characters you might have in your passcodes.

Usage and Performance

The IPEVO Skype phone is quite easy to use, especially after you are set up on your wireless network and signed into Skype on the phone. Upon signing in, your Skype contact list is available and shows your contacts' presence information. Like the Philips VOIP841, from the IPEVOs home screen, you press the "Contacts" button to load your contacts for easy dialing. The homescreen also displays the current local time, the current user name that is logged in, and the current Skype balance.

The call quality with the IPEVO Skype WiFi phone was outstanding for a handset. My callers were very audible to me, in fact, they were clearer and louder than when I called them with the VOIP841, for comparison. Callers said I sounded great as well. This was true for both Skype-to-Skype calls and Skype to landline/mobile calls as well.

While call quality was good, battery life left a lot to be desired. I found that with moderate usage and keeping the phone powered on, the IPEVO device could only stay powered on for about 5 hours.

This is understandable, considering the IPEVO has the power-hungry Wi-Fi chipset on board the device, but this poor battery life is something to keep in mind if you are a heavy Skype user who needs a handset that will last a considerable amount of time.

Conclusion

Overall, the IPEVO Skype Wi-Fi phone is an attractive, feature rich handset that makes great sounding calls. Anyone who wants to be able to talk to their Skype contacts or make/receive very inexpensive Skype calls should consider this device for a purchase. Having Skype on a handset like this really makes Skype no different than a normal cordless phone for regular dialing.

One important note: if you have areas of your house that have weak Wi-Fi signal quality, this specific phone won't work in those areas. The IPEVO handset does have a Wi-Fi signal indicator, but I noticed choppy calls in rooms that are far away from my wireless router.

The IPEVO Skype Wi-Fi handset is Skype Certified and is available for around $130 at various Intetnet-based retailers.

Skype Journal columnist Jason Harris, engages communities for corporations and explores internet telephony, mobile technology, and the leaders who bring them to market on his Techcraver blog and onTwitter.

Aliases: A Thing I Really Want from Skype for Business

Aliases (Multiple Skype Names per Skype Account).

Multiple custom profiles per Skype user account.

I need one for my external customers, another for my team, another for external suppliers and partners. Also, my boss doesn't need to know I'm GorgonTheDestroyer in Warcraft, my clan doesn't need to know I collect taxes for HMRC.

Each alias should have its own profile, presence, permissions, history.

My account should give me a view of all of my aliases.

My account should come with two default aliases: @work, @life.

Let me log in once and present myself well in each context.

 

See Things I Really Want from Skype for Business:

• Aliases
• Alias Transfer 
• Provisioning
• Share Aliases

 

Skype is a productivity and collaboration tool, well suited for workplace. Millions of people use Skype at work. Skype for Business is a Skype team and product family serving small and large organizations.

tags: skype

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Skype for Asterisk component for Adhearsion

Guest post by Jason Goecke, Adhearsion

After having more time to work in detail with the Skype for Asterisk (SFA) channel in closed beta, I have developed an Adhearsion component to ease my development and testing efforts. Hopefully this will ease yours in the near future when the public beta becomes available.

The Skype Utils component provides a few features to take advantage of what this new channel brings to the Asterisk platform. First, the component provides a single method call to access a wealth of information in your dialplan that is delivered with each Skype call. This type of information is unheard of on any other channel available to Asterisk (let alone telecoms in general), this information includes:

• skype_languages - A space-separated list of language identifiers (ie - es, en, etc)
• skype_topic - A user-provided string that can identify the ‘topic’ of the call
• skype_token - Similar to skype_topic
• skype_about - ‘about’ profile entry
• skype_birthday - Birthday
• skype_gender - Gender
• skype_homepage - Home page URL
• skype_homephone - Home phone number
• skype_officephone - Office phone number
• skype_mobilephone - Mobile phone number
• skype_city - City name
• skype_province - State/Province name
• skype_country - Country name

The next feature that the component provides is the ability to map Skype usernames with Asterisk extensions. Typically Asterisk is used with phones that require you to enter a numeric phone number when dialing someone. Of course most Skype names are usernames that have nothing to do with a phone number. With this component you may enter the relationship between an extension number and a Skype username in  database with a Ruby on Rails web interface. Then when calls are made to and from the Skype network you have a seamless translation between the two.

Last (so far), but not least, is the ability to track Skype presence information. The SFA channel allows you to add ‘buddies’ to your Asterisk/Skype username. Once this has been done, you are then able to obtain status updates from each of the buddies on your list.

The component then allows you to track these status updates and access them in your dialplan. The status updates may be persisted to a database or kept in memory. Further, those status updates are not only available to your dialplan but to the REST, DRb and STOMP APIs of Adhearsion, making them available to virtually any program.

With this you may track if each Skype user is in one of the following states:

• Online - user is online
• Skype Me - user is available and asking to be ‘Skyped’
• Away - the user is away from their Skype client
• Not Available - the user is not available for a call
• Do Not Disturb - the user does not want to be disturbed
• Offline (Voicemail Enabled) - the user is offline and has voicemail
• Offline (Voicemail Disabled) - the user is offline and has no voicemail

Stay tuned for example applications that will build upon this component. In the meantime do not hesitate to have a look at the code and details here.

I would also like to thank @steely_glint and Todd Gould, fellow beta team members, for their assistance in constructing an environment where all the pieces could work. Great progress is being made on the SFA beta code, but of course there are still some quirks.

tags: adhearsion, asterisk, opensource, ruby, skype, voip, skypeforasterisk

follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

As phones becomes PCs, shouldn't you control your phone, not the phone company?

Skype will announce results of their Zogby consumer survey tomorrow. Findings support Skype's bargaining position with mobile carriers (pre-install Skype, embed SILK) and their freedom-to-connect regulatory rhetoric (delamination, Skype Carterfone).

UPDATE: announced.

The issue: Do you want the control and power over your mobile phone you have over your PC?

People under 30 years old think of phones as PCs. They want the same choice over software, connectivity, and services they have with PCs.

US carriers block a phone's features and restrict which programs users put on their phones, a "walled garden" approach. Skype clearly wants people free to choose Skype software and hardware. 

Consumers in countries where they have more control over their mobiles, like Spain and Japan, get the idea that smartphones are like PCs, platforms for software. 

The timing is great: just two weeks until more Skype announcements at CTIA Wireless 2009 in Las Vegas. CTIAw is a tradeshow where mobile carriers and those who sell to/through them gather. Mobile phone manufacturers, transmission technology companies, software companies (the whole stack) will be there.

Mobile carrier execs decried consumer control at the September 2008 CTIA event.

In this survey, 1800 US consumers were asked:

Recently, an upper-level executive from a mobile carrier said that consumers would rather have their mobile devices' applications chosen for them than to have the ability to choose the applications for themselves. Do you agree or disagree with that statement?

4 out of 5 want the ability to choose for themselves:

Strongly agree	1.8%
Somewhat agree	10.6%
Somewhat disagree	25.2%
Strongly disagree	55.3%
Not sure	7.1%

Nick says the study shows users want the kind of application choice iPhone users find in their app store.

tags: skype, zogby, survey, statistics, stats, demography, users, customers, mobile, usa, us, jp, japan, es, spain, uk

follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

Skype's news release:

Worldwide, consumers still perceive wide gap between their computers and mobile devices; want greater control over mobile experience

Zogby survey of U.S., Japan, Spain and U.K. mobile users shows most do not currently download applications to mobile devices; Skype calls for greater collaboration between carriers, software providers and device makers to assist consumers in embracing next generation of mobile experience

LUXEMBOURG, March 17, 2009 - Skype published data today from a recent Zogby survey showing that most mobile users still perceive a gap between the purpose and controllability of their computers versus their mobile devices. This gap correlates with the finding that the vast majority of mobile users do not yet download applications to their mobile devices.

However, the same people expressed a strong desire to be able to choose mobile applications for themselves, and not have their carriers decide what applications they can use. The results also indicated that people will pay more for a device that will allow them to control the applications.

The study surveyed approximately 3,000 mobile users in four markets -- the U.S., U.K., Japan and Spain - between December 2008 and February 2009. Highlights of the findings include:

• 62% do not yet view their mobile device as an extension of their computer.
• Only 23% feel that they have more or the same level of control over their mobile device as they have over their computer.
• 70% have never downloaded an application to their mobile device.
• 67% want to be able to choose their mobile applications for themselves, rather than have their carriers choose for them.

Regional Breakout: Spain Leads the Way

When the results are broken out by market, regional differences emerge. In Japan, the U.S. and the U.K., respondents felt the least control over their mobile devices versus personal computers (67 percent, 78 percent, 65 percent, respectively), which correlates to few users downloading applications to their mobile devices (22% in Japan, 26% in the U.S., and 28% in the U.K.)

The results from Spain, however, paint a different picture, one that hints at what happens when mobile consumers are given more control. In that market, more than half of the respondents felt there was no difference or they had more control over their mobile devices (53%) as they have over their computers (46%). Nearly half (47%) view their mobile devices as extensions of their computers. Given these attitudes, it is perhaps not coincidental that nearly half of Spanish mobile users (48%) have downloaded applications to their devices, a much larger percentage than the other markets surveyed. And, a much larger percentage of Spain’s mobile users – 50% -- are willing to pay more for a mobile device that allows them to control their applications.

The Age Gap: Younger People Less Likely to View Mobile Devices as Merely Phones

The survey results also indicate that younger adults have a different view of what a mobile device is than their older counterparts. When asked if they view their mobile device as a phone to make calls on, a computer to access the Internet and download applications, or both, younger respondents were less likely to consider their mobile device to be just a phone. For example, in Japan, respondents under 30 were more likely to view mobile devices as a computer, or both (50%) than view them as merely phones (47%), while only 1 in 4 respondents in that market between the ages of 50 and 64 shared a similar view.

“These results show that work could be done to continue to blur the line between the computer and the mobile device, and that advances in new Internet-based services and mobile devices will help drive innovation. Overall, people want the ability to have control over which applications they download and this is consistent with trends in other industries,” said Chad Bohnert, VP Marketing and E-Commerce at Zogby International.

“This is a clear call to action for all of us in the communications industry – carriers, device manufacturers, and software companies like Skype – to work together to deliver what the mobile consumer, especially the next generation of device and data plan buyers, obviously want and expect,” said Scott Durchslag, Chief Operating Officer of Skype. “Together, we can bring a rich PC-like communications experience to mobile devices – one that combines voice, video, presence, instant messaging, and file sharing. In doing so, consumers win, and so does the industry as it fuels growth in data minutes and revenues.”

To answer mobile consumer demand, Skype is focused on delivering more choice, value, and functionality to the billions of mobile devices in the market today. In recent months, Skype now offers mobile applications for a wide range of operating systems, including Android, Windows Mobile, and Java-enabled phones, and is now available on more than 100 devices from LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. In addition, the 3Skypephone, available from Hutchison Whampoa's wireless subsidiary 3, has been used to make more than 300 million Skype-to-Skype calls.

UPDATE: Added "People v. Walled Garden" graphic by Phil Wolff

Friday reading

me

I'm in the New York Times coverage of Google Voice. Quoted correctly (yay!) but before my own column on the subject came out (d'oh!). Google has some truly delightful advantages in the race to become the world's largest communications company. 

under

Australia's Telestra keeps Nokia N85 inside the walled garden, keeps Skype out. A year without growth leaves them cautious, even when Skype offers to pay.

New Zealand's Yellow partners with Skype. Search through the Skype Directory and call most nz companies for free until June 10. 

the future

Foresight Institute gets a new president. Skype me (evanwolf) if you want to come to Dr. Hall's Sunday reception in Palo Alto. We'll all be talking molecular manufacturing, nanotechnology and the singularity.

Nokia shares its vision. Smartphones rising. Death of patience. Rewarding engagement. Personal expression. New learning economy. Clickable world. Personal relevance. A good summary of forces driving the interplay between mobile technology, industry dynamics, and human behavior.

the present

One in four drop landlines in some states according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study. Turning to mobiles, an act of belt-tightening. Q. Of those who switch to mobile, how many have unlimited flat-rate data plans, favorable to Skype?

CRM Over Voice: Using Voice in New Ways for Service Providers to Retain Subscribers and Strengthen Brand. White paper by analyst Jon Arnold for Mobivox. The cool stuff starts on page 4. Speech recognition + VoIP + SaaS = Contextual CRM, creating touch points that add value to the customer journey. Jon explains why it's good and how to build it, using Mobivox as an example.

VoSKY sells Skype trunking to Majorcan hotel chain. Attach a box to your PBX and your staff doesn't even know they are calling through the Skype network at lower rates. 

Larry Dignan shows why mobile developers migrate from Symbian to RIM and Mac OS X. Growth and share favor the Bold. And iPhone.

the past

Transcript of Skype's Jonathan Christensen's talk about speech quality at the Emerging Communications Conference last week. History as prelude to something new?

gig

Benjamin Leviton seeks VoIP help: "I have a Brekeke SIP proxy server. I am looking for someone to remote on to my desktop, log into its interface and config my carriers with the proxy server. Also check the interface of Polycom phone and make sure it is working properly with the SIP proxy server." Contact:  +1-917-273-5808, ben@capitalfinanceusa.com, yahoo IM gcc644@yahoo.com, or skype:levtop.

tags: google, googlevoice, australia, telestra, nokia, N85, New Zealand, nz, yellow, skype, directory, search, foresight, smartphones, landlines, cdc, mobile, crm, mobivox, vosky, majorca, spain, pbx, symbian, rim, apple, blackberry, iphone, jonathanchristensen, ecomm, brekeke, sip, polycom

follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

eBay Analyst Day 2009: The slide show

Wednesday 11 March 2009 was eBay's day to sell Skype to the investor community. Here's the combined slide show.

eBay 2009 Analyst Day

The Skype slides start in page 145.

Thanks, Jennifer.

tags: skype, ebayinc, financials, strategy

follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

eBay Analyst Day: Donohoe: Screw the Synergy, Skype is fine on its own

[Editor: My paraphrase. Mr. Donahoe is more genteel.]

AP's Rachel Metz:

"I think it was an acquisition that had potential, we thought it would have synergy. In the fast-moving Internet world it's turning out not to. I'm being transparent about that," he said.

He wouldn't say whether eBay may eventually sell the unit, saying just that the company will "do what will allow Skype to maximize its success."

New York Times DealBook Blog:

Mr. Donahoe repeated that eBay was wrong in assuming that Skype would “enhance communication between buyers and sellers and reduce friction in the eBay marketplace and payments.” But he also said eBay “was done apologizing” for buying the calling service and that it was a great standalone business.

And when asked by Bits’ Brad Stone if Skype was for sale, Mr. Donahoe smiled and declined to answer directly, Mr. Stone reported.

CNBC's Jim Goldman

At the same time, Donahoe himself admitted that eBay's purchase of Skype, designed to facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers, has failed. But that doesn't mean the business model around Skype isn't compelling. The company has already written down the billions it spent on Skype, and as of today, Donahoe says "We are done apologizing for Skype." Now the challenge will be to turn the unit into a revenue driver.

Forbes' Brian Caulfield:

CEO John Donahoe admits that the company's plans for Skype didn't work.

EBay has finally admitted it. It doesn't have a grand plan to fit its online calling service, Skype, into its e-commerce business. That's OK though, because Skype is starting to look a lot like what eBay used to be.

tags: skype, ebayinc

follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Ask for an invitation to the Skype Journal private roundtable.

photo: ebayink

DataPortability.org update on thesocialweb.tv

I put in three or four hours a week into The DataPortability Project. Here's a video update by David Recordon interviewing Daniela Barbosa and Elias Bizannes, the project's chair and vice-chair. We're working toward some goals for 2009, and one deliverable is a Data Portability Policy Template to help sites disclose how well they support data portability values.

Skype for Windows Skype 4.0.0.215 (hotfix)

Help > Check For Updates or download to get the 40 bugfixes, some to serious UI and device problems.

Known issues:

• Accessibility features still not complete. Download 3.8.
• Still incompatible with several Creative brand webcams and digital video cameras.
• Skype slows on launch when you have many contacts and slows when your hard disk is busy.
• Skype's backup feature doesn't restore manually-added phone numbers. Those same numbers aren't available when you log in on another computer.
• Skype's Outlook integration won't import phone numbers without proper country codes but it won't show you the problems. So you have to identify the number problems and fix them in Outlook.

SkypeSync supports Portable Contacts API

 

The SkypeSync desktop utility imports your contacts into Skype from other platforms. The new SkypeSync 1.8 adds sources supporting the Portable Contacts API. The standard is supported by Plaxo, so SkypeSync supports import of Plaxo contacts into Skype.

SkypeSync supports other sources too, including webmail address books from Google and Yahoo! using email standards and mobile phone contacts via the SyncML protocol. I described SkypeSync's mobile data portability last year,

Skype's own Contacts > Import Contacts... wizard in Skype for Windows 4 imports from Yahoo! web mail and Outlook desktop mail. SkypeSync steps in to fill gaps in Skype's coverage.

SkypeSync suffers from a few limits beyond its control.

• Searching the Skype p2p user directory is so slow it makes looking up Skype names difficult.
• Backward compatibility means I now have six "Alec Saunders" contacts instead of one with his five phone numbers. UPDATE: Skype limits max number of phone numbers per Skype contact to three.
• Skype does not permit programmers to search the Skype Find/Prime business directory.
• And there is no place for SkypeSync to store medata from other sources (address information, emails, employers) as notes about my contacts.

On my wishlist for future releases:

• Dozens of other sources.
• Offer intermediate steps before adding contacts.
• Push Skype contacts into Plaxo and other services. 

Step by step... 

Pick your source. Today you can choose from SyncML mobile phones, Outlook, GMail, Yahoo! mail address book, and Plaxo.

I chose Plaxo, where I have more than a thousand contacts pulled from my Google, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts.

Skype is picky about phone numbers: they need a "+" in front, in the US a "+1". 

So you've defined your source and set your numbering.

Now you can start your importing. Trial mode limits you to 15 names from any source.

And go...

Whoops. I need to give SkypeSync permission from my Skype client.

So, trying again, SkypeSync adds 15 contacts to Skype.

Results

I buy the software and, with a "full license", import all 3970 of my Plaxo contacts.

They are labeled "SkypeSync" so you can see who's been imported.

Most of my contacts don't have Skype names, just phone numbers: the green phone icon. Some of them have two phone numbers. SkypeSync creates two contact entries, one for each phone number. Inconvenient, but needed for compatibility with older versions of Skype. Skype for Windows 4.0 supports multiple phone numbers for each Skype name, but this hasn't always been the case.

Looking at the screenshot above, some people are offline. They have Skype names in their Plaxo profiles.

Sadly, SkypeSync automatically sent these people an invitation to connect in Skype. Should this be opt-in? Should SkypeSync offer you the chance to not-add a former girlfriend, someone suing you,

Strangely, Skype sent an email notifying the new invitees. This is new to me. 

License	Trialware
Cost	€12, pay with SkypeOut credit
Easy of Use
Does What It Says
Useful
Fun
Social
Certifications	Not Skype certified

tags: skype, 4, dataportability, skypesync, plaxo, software, import, importing, portable contacts, portablecontacts, utilities, extras

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What's in Skype's product family?

I don't have a solid list of all of Skype's products for the Skype Journal Briefing Book I use on consulting gigs. Here's a very rough list of Skype's desktop, mobile and embedded software; search, network, and gateway services; and developer products. Open questions:

1. What's missing? Lots.
2. Is this well organized? For example, is search really a network service?
3. Can I show this better than taxonomically? Over time? By number of users? By effort? By dependencies?

I used Mindmeister to make the map. It's in wiki mode, so feel free to add to it.

tags: skype, products, search, embedded, mobile, network, developer, gateway, desktop, windows

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Xandros' Presto quick launch for Skype

Xandros previewed Presto last week, a light operating system that boots your laptop quickly so you can be running Skype (for Linux) in about 8 seconds instead of minutes. Firefox, Skype, your Windows files and thousands of other apps and media are available through the presto application store.
Unlike Splashtop, which is installed at your notebook's factory (with Skype included), you download Presto onto Windows computers. It will cost $19.95, but those who sign up for the beta after 16 March will get a discount when it goes on sale 13 April 2009.
Presto could make netbooks even better portable Skype devices.

tags: skype, xandros, linux

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Hat tip to John Maas.

Dear Speaker,

Duncan Davidson of Portland, Oregon, was photographer in residence for the eComm conference this week. In a spurt of inspiration, Duncan tweeted these nine tips on conference photogenicity (photogeneity?).

1. Dear speaker: please deliver your speech to the crowd, not the screen.
2. Dear speaker, please pick a spot and stay. Move deliberately to another. Don't pace aimlessly. And please don't turn all the way around.
3. Dear speaker, please take off your name tag.
4. Speaker pro tip: if you find yourself walking _backwards_, you are probably pacing very vigorously. Stop. Breathe.
5. Speaker pro tip: if you don't make eye contact with your audience, you make it that much harder for them to connect to your message.
6. Dear speaker: the corner of the stage that you like to use to feel closer to the crowd is darker than rest of stage. They can see you less there
7. Dear speaker: all of you are being videotaped, what I've just said matters 10x more. Think of viewers watching a rapidly pacing speaker.
8. Rule of thumb for speaker clothing: Dress like you mean it. ~0 to 1 levels above mean "nice" for audience.
9. Speaker Pro Tip: When on a panel, don't look at your shoes. Try to look at who's talking. Otherwise, you look bored, even if you're not.

tags: speech, public speaking, ecomm09, ecommconf09

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Skype offers SMS voicemail notifications: good idea, poor execution

Basic voicemail is so 1980s. Now SpinVox transcribes voice messages and alerts you, for a fee, when you get Skype voice mail. Set up your Skype voice mail alerts here. This is a great idea. I love anything that improves voice messaging freshness, accuracy, speed, comprehension, searchability, and context.

Sadly, this Skype implementation fails to deliver the minimum quality, reliability and affordability to be a useful market test. Eight problems:

First, Skype's SMS alerts will cut off transcripts.

SpinVox is famous for its voicemail transcription. Yet this offering is limited to no more than three SMS alerts. That's too little for half of voice mail messages.

SpinVox says “the average voice mail deposit is 18 to 22 seconds.” Let's say people speak 150 words per minute. That's about 50 words in 20 seconds, 250 characters at 5 characters per word.

Three alerting SMS messages at 140 characters is 420. Let's reserve 25 per message for identifiers (something like "SpinVox Skype Alert 1 of 3"). That leaves 345 for the payload.

Let's say it might take 100 characters for the intro voice mail metadata: sender Skype name or caller ID, receiver Skype name, length of message, date/time sent. That leaves 245 characters for the transcript.

So with 250 characters available and 245 needed, that should be enough, right?

It's not enough. Averages blend higher and lower numbers. If normally distributed, maybe a third to half of your messages will be severely cut off as users speak longer than the mean.

Failure to give me the whole message one third of the time, combined with transcription error rates, creates an unreliable experience.

Second, email alerts don't include transcripts.

Huh? Really? This would be immensely useful!

Third, I'm forced to choose between email and SMS alerts. I don't know in advance which will be the best way to reach me. Why force me to choose? And why can't I have multiple email addresses for alerts? Or alert other Skype users?

Fourth, no Skype chat notification.

Huh? Really? Vipadia can set up a Skype chat bridge for you.

Fifth, it costs too much: $1.50 per voice message.

I'm assuming nearly all voice mails will take three texts. Including SpinVox translation (about $0.20), sending Skype-to-SMS ($0.13 USA-to-USA), and receiving SMS ($0.20), most voicemail alerts will cost me $1.50.

For active Skypers, those who use SkypeIn and get voice mails every day, this adds up.

Sixth, no full transcripts of voicemails.

You have SpinVox! Use them! Send me full transcripts of voicemail by email, by browser, or in chat. Searchable, downloadable, persistent archives make voicemail useful and actionable.

Seventh, no videomail support.

Does Skype offer videomail? Not now. When Skype does, SpinVox should transcribe videomail too.

Eighth, no live call transcription.

Voicemail alerting and transcriptions treat a pain point. There's opportunity in transcribing conference calls the millions using Skype for collaboration, coordination, meetings, recruiting. As transcription costs fall, they are becoming standard meetingware.

I'm glad Skype and SpinVox are working together, finally. This initiative gets so many small things wrong; I can't imagine it meeting any commercial success as it's scoped now. So iterate quickly, please. Find a sweet spot and a vision.

Technorati tags: skype, spinvox, transcription, alert, alerts, alerting, sms, texting, voicemail, videomail, transcribe, messaging

News release follows:

SpinVox powers first Skype voicemail to text

LONDON and LUXEMBOURG, Mar. 03, 2009 - SpinVox, the global leader in voice to content messaging and Skype, announces the availability of voicemail to text conversion for all Skype voicemail users today. SpinVox conveniently converts voice messages to text in English, Spanish, French and German. The messages are then sent by Skype as an SMS text directly to a designated mobile phone for users to read.

Skype users can now benefit from instant ‘visible voicemail’, and never miss those important calls from friends or colleagues when they are away from Skype. Recipients of converted voicemail messages can listen to the full voice message by either signing into Skype or by calling their Skype To Go number*. As well as being able to receive voicemail as text via SpinVox, Skype users may choose instead to receive voicemail notification via SMS or for free by email.

“Skype is the first internet communications software provider to deploy SpinVox, further reinforcing our position as the only provider of voice to text messaging services which are used daily by millions of people on five continents,” says SpinVox co-founder and CEO, Christina Domecq. “Our user base has grown over twenty-fold in the last 12 months and bringing Skype’s voicemail subscribers on board will accelerate this trend.”

“Using SpinVox gives our users added flexibility and convenience over their Skype voicemails, said Mike Bartlett, director of product strategy at Skype. “As people continue to spend more time on the move and on their mobile devices, people want to take their Skype conversations with them. SpinVox is a great option for our users to save time on checking their Skype voicemail and receive messages immediately sent to their mobile phone.”

It’s easy for Skype users to set up voicemail to text from their account page, by simply registering a mobile phone number. Each voicemail to text conversion will cost €0.20/£0.17/$0.25 plus the cost of sending an SMS at standard low Skype rates. Additional SMS charges – a maximum of 3 - may apply depending on the length of the voicemail message.

All payments are made fuss-free through Skype Credit. Users have a choice to set a limit on the number of voicemail conversions received per day and to receive messages from people only in their contact list to help them manage their Skype credit. An email notification will be sent if that limit is exceeded. For more information please visit http://www.skype.com/go/voicemail-to-text.

About Skype

Founded in 2003, Skype is revolutionizing the way people communicate around the world.  Skype has more than 405 million registered users globally who use Skype software to communicate for free through voice and video calls as well as instant messages.  Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings, such as calls made to and from landlines and mobiles, voicemail, call forwarding, and SMS.  Skype is used in almost every country on Earth, and people have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls.  Conversations over Skype can take place on computers, mobile devices and Skype Certified™ hardware. Skype certifies and sells hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners, and works with hundreds of third-party developers who have created plug-ins to extend Skype’s functionality.

Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY). Learn more and download Skype at www.skype.com.

Access to a broadband Internet connection is required. Skype is not a replacement for your traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling.

Skype, associated trade marks and logos and the “S” symbol are trade marks of Skype Limited.

About SpinVox

SpinVox® is the world's largest privately-held speech technology company, providing the only voice to text messaging services which are used daily by millions of people and whose user base has grown over twenty-fold in the last 12 months.

Through significant innovations in voice and network technologies which are protected by over 60 patents worldwide, SpinVox has converged the two most natural forms of communication - voice and text - to create the fastest-growing form of messaging: Voice-to-Content™.

SpinVox services are available directly on www.spinvox.com and through leading carriers and through new media, Unified Communications and other service providers globally.

Implemented as a carrier-class hosted network feature, SpinVox is proven to able to easily create value from everyday user behaviour using voice and deliver rapid and easy implementation of low input, sustained high reward services.

At the heart of SpinVox is its ground-breaking Voice Message Conversion System™ (VMCS), which works by combining state-of-the-art speech technologies with a live-learning language process.  Developed by the Cambridge, UK- based SpinVox Advanced Speech Group; VMCS now serves users across five continents in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian.

SpinVox is now live with Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Rogers Wireless, Telus, Telstra, Vodacom South Africa, Vodafone Spain, Movistar Chile, Skype and Livejournal.

###

*Skype To Go is currently available in Australia, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, UK, and the U.S. For more information about Skype To Go visit www.skype.com/go/skypetogo

Skype sucks up to new FCC chair – like everyone else

The new Matt LeBlanc look-alike is filling a post that affects Skype's future in the US. It's a proper courtesy to greet the new nominee.

SKYPE WELCOMES NOMINATION OF JULIUS GENACHOWSKI AS NEW FCC CHAIRMAN

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2009 – Josh Silverman, Skype’s President, issued the following statement regarding the nomination by President Barack Obama of Julius Genachowski as the new Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission:

"Skype is pleased that President Obama has nominated Julius Genachowski to Chair the Federal Communications Commission. As a trusted member of the Obama technology policy team, we look forward to working with Julius as the FCC establishes policy priorities. The success of the Obama campaign clearly demonstrated that the Internet is a platform for empowering citizens and disrupting existing ways of doing business. Likewise, change is coming to the FCC and we are looking forward to working with Chairman Genachowski to put innovation policy to work for all Americans. We welcome Chairman Genachowski to his new responsibilities and to a future defined by more innovation, faster broadband, and lower phone bills."

The US spends hundreds of billions of dollars annually on telecom, all of it regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. FCC policies affect consumer choice, market consolidation, rural Internet access, the rules of mobile competition, availability of spectrum to citizens.

No wonder figurative bowers of flowers are being heaped upon Chairman Nominee Genachowski from all affected.

Technorati tags: skype, fcc, genachowski, regulation, julius, lobbying

SILK performs better

Skype's been saying its SILK audio codec is better than others. They released some data today supporting their claim.

Key measure is Mean Opinion Score, which compares sound as perceived before and after processing. Higher is better, greater fidelity.

In this chart, the codecs are tested at low bitrates (hard, on the left) to high bitrates (easy, on the right). Lots of bandwidth makes it easy to replicate sounds. SILK does better even at dial-up speeds, and SILK climbs in quality with even a little extra freedom. 

That's with clean bandwidth.

SILK does well even with bad connectivity. This chart shows Skype degrades more gracefully than other codecs, twice as well as the popular free open source Speex codec and better than the Adaptive MultiRate WideBand (AMR-WB) speech codec. 

Three things contribute to SILK's attractiveness:

• It's written in fixed point ANSI C, so it will run efficiently nearly anywhere.
• It quickly adapts to changes in sample rate, network quantity/quality, and CPU resources. This minimizes audio artifacts and preserves quality.
• Low delay frees up other parts of a system, cutting latency. SILK only needs 25 ms (20 ms frame size + 5 ms look-ahead). 

SILK does double duty with non-speech media. Skype's codec also works at music quality. Systems that stream music, television, movies, or ambient audio (games) will be able to use SILK.

Signal processing takes up huge overhead on mobile phones. As SILK moves from software to firmware, Skype suddenly takes up less memory, CPU, and power. Users get longer battery life, less heat, less latency. This would be a big win for Skype's mobile strategy. Skype would work on much dumber, cheaper, ubiquitous smartphones: a vastly larger market.

Notes from the data sheet:

MOS (Mean Opinion Score) listening test was performed for Wideband speech signals by Dynastat, an independent 3rd party laboratory. Confidence intervals (95%) are +/- 0.1 MOS. All bitrates are measured and averaged over frames containing active speech. SILK and Speex were run in the highest complexity mode. Packet Loss and Office Noise tests were done with all codecs running at 18.25 kbps.

See also:

• Skype will license its superwideband codec for free (Skype Journal)
• Skype for Windows 4.0 Gold: Blog Coverage (Skype Journal)
• SILK: Skype's New Audio Codec Sets New Performance Standards for Voice Conversations (Skype Journal)
• The true beginning of wideband telephony adoption? and Graves On SOHO VoIP » Peace In VoIPland: Bridging the SIP & Skype Kingdoms  (Michigan Telephone, VoIP, and Broadband blog)
• Skype’s SILKen bear hug (Alec Saunders)
• Skype at eComm 2009: Royalty Free Licensing of SILK Codec (VotW)
• Skype Gives Back to VoIP (Voxilla)
• Skype Gives Away SILK Codec - Has Wideband Telephony Finally Arrived? (Tom Keating)
• Skype to let competitors license speech codec for free (Brad Linder)
• Skype To Give Away New SILK Audio Codec (Michael Arrington)

tags: skype, silk, codec, mos, wideband, superwideband, speex, AMR-WB

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Skype will license its superwideband codec for free

SILK is making Skype sound great. Literally sound good to human ears. Today Jonathan Christensen announced Skype will license their SILK audio codec binaries freely, broadly, without royalty, and without ties to Skype products.

I was wrong. The codec license will not be open source. Audio codecs only.

It's early. Details are firming up on which platforms will be available first. Skype is still determining the signal processing partners who will release SILK optimizations for those platforms. License is still with lawyers.

Skype spent millions buying the talent and building the technology behind SILK. Why would Skype give up a competitive edge? I can think of a short term reason and longer term one.

Short term, Skype needs gear built to support the high fidelity of the Skype network. When SILK is comes on mobile phone chips, for example, Skype won't have to consume as many CPU cycles, chew up as much power, or run as hot. When SILK comes as an ASIC core, companies that make webcams, headsets, microphones, speakerphones, skypephones, webcamphones, and all the other ways we get our voices in and out of Skype will reproduce our voices in high fidelity.

Longer term, Skype's platform strategy calls for interop. To make that work, Skype will need to make available some of the components you find in a Skype client. Audio codecs, like SILK. Video codecs, like the ones Skype licenses from On2. Security components. When Skype is ready to offer developers the ability to build Skype into web apps, look for more sharing and licensing.

Get in the queue for early release: email SILKSupport@skype.net with subject "SILK Binary SDK Request".

Technorati tags: skype, silk, codecs, codec

Skype-XMPP IM Gateway: open source Karaka demoing at eComm

Vipadia's Karaka open source software is another reason to go to this week's Emerging Communications Conference (20% off with 'skypejournal' discount code).

The Karaka libraries manage Skype farms (many instances of Skype running in a data center) and bridge chat users to the Skype network through XMPP applications.

Skype farming is part of building a gateway. Fring, iSkoot, Eqo, Ribbit, IM+ and anyone else who wants to offer Skype chat, Skype presence, Skype profiles and other Skype data must have a gateway. Karaka helps you build your farm management system.

Neil Stratford, Vipadia's CEO, said "we needed the gateway to support our ClackPoint service - as a building block it seemed that it would be more widely useful, so we decided to release it publicly."

 

Scope of a generic Skype gateway?

• Instance lifecycle management: creating, monitoring, and closing instances of Skype.
• Instance virtualization: running your Skype instances on many servers/blades so you scale to meet demand.
• Multisite hosting: minimizing latency (speeding up round trips) by routing conversations to the closest server with available resources
• Skype client configuration:  streamlining instances to avoid using a computer's memory, cpu and bandwidth, and to avoid memory leaks.
• Session management: mapping outside clients to sessions in your gateway, even when they have flaky connectivity.
• Security: the usual, but more so.
• Modeling: associating Skype's data models for people, groups, chats, calls, to your own software and APIs.

What Karaka does and doesn't do:

• Instance lifecycle management: Yes.
• Instance virtualization: Yes. 
• Multisite hosting: No. You can use DNS SRV record load balancing to different sites. 
• Skype client configuration:  Defaults to a basic config, but you can script your own.
• Session management: Yes.
• Security: Up to you. "We have an API to enable encrypted transmission of credentials, but otherwise we rely on the security of the associated XMPP infrastructure."
• Modeling: Yes for those elements in the XMPP definition, No for SIP call elements.

In English:

Look at Vipadia's GPL'd libraries when you want to build a gateway to Skype, to have Skype inside your product or service.

The news release.

Vipadia is pleased to announce the release under the GPLv2 of Karaka, the open-source XMPP-Skype Gateway.

Existing Skype interconnect solutions focus on bridging voice even though the primary use of Skype is for instant messaging and associated presence data. Interconnecting with Skype messaging and presence has been a major stumbling block for many who wish to offer Skype interconnection to their network. Karaka bridges the XMPP and Skype clouds, removing this stumbling block by converting Skype messaging and presence to the popular XMPP protocol as used by, e.g., Google Talk.

Karaka is a scalable distributed XMPP transport that bridges instant messaging and presence between a user's XMPP and Skype accounts. In addition to full presence and instant messaging exchange, it also automatically detects Skype multi-party conversations, elevating them into XMPP conference rooms.

Karaka implements the XMPP standards XEP-0100 for gateway support, XEP-0045 for multi-user chats and XEP-0144 for roster exchange.

Karaka is licensed under the GPLv2 and is hosted on Google Code at <http://code.google.com/p/karaka/>. For more information visit <http://vipadia.com/products/karaka/>.

Vipadia <http://vipadia.com/> is a Cambridge, UK based startup that creates and innovates in the field of IP communications, specialising in Voice, Video, Messaging and Presence over IP.

Karaka uses the Skype API but is not endorsed or certified by Skype.

tags: skype, vipadia, karaka, code, platform, platforming, xmpp, ecomm09, ecomm, gateway, opensource, bridge

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diagram credit: Vipadia

Jaduka names voice mashup king to CEO spot

In his inaugural post, Thomas Howe articulates the platform challenge: to make realtime talk easy for non-voice programmers.

Andy Abramson bets Thomas will strengthen Jaduka's focus on enterprise integration. Rich Tehrani's interview with Thomas covers the whole company. Gary Kim says Thomas brings street cred.

Thomas Howe's been on Jaduka's radar for a while. Patrick Murphy called Thomas one of the top three Telco 2.0 thought leaders last December.

Jaduka is one of the few companies positioned to dominate talkification of the web. Their platforming strategy is

Congrats to Thomas and the whole Jaduka crew. See you at eComm.

See also: Should Skype buy Jajah? Lypp? Truphone? Jaduka? and Jaduka's Trevor Baca at eComm 2008.

tags: jaduka, thomashowe, platform, telco2.0, mashup

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Skype to announce… something? at eComm09

Skype strategist Julien Decot is off the 2009 Emerging Communications Conference speaker list and Skype GM Jonathan Christensen has an announcement to make. Mr. Christensen's keynote is described as:

Codec Evolution and Industry Proposal (Plus Skype Announcement)

The PSTN has been bandwidth limited from its inception. This was done to keep equipment costs down. But is 3kHz really enough to get your point across? Wideband audio has emerged in services like Skype and with today's low cost, silicon based manufacturing and the move to all IP transmission there is an opportunity to finally break through the POTS bandwidth barrier. Jonathan will discuss the complex audio codec landscape and put forth a proposal for how we [the Industry] can make wideband audio ubiquitous.

Let's parse this and madly speculate where Jonathan's going.

The PSTN has been bandwidth limited from its inception. This was done to keep equipment costs down.

The public switched telephone network (PSTN) cuts off your speech's top (high notes) and bottom (low notes). While some microphones and speakers, like those used by musicians, capture everything, most equipment in mobile phones, landline phones, speakerphones, or even Skype phones captures just enough of your sound to be understood.

But is 3kHz really enough to get your point across? Wideband audio has emerged in services like Skype

Wideband audio restores the lifelike quality of sound by capturing and playing more of your sound's natural highs and lows. Skype's new SILK codec, which moves sound between Skype and your computer, and between Skype and other Skype users, is a wideband codec. Incredibly vivid sound.  

and with today's low cost, silicon based manufacturing

Putting software into a chip... SILK codecs as semiconductor "cores"? A core is a readily usable bit of software already rendered in the software language of chip programming. Everything electronic has some sort of chip in it, from radios to cars. Pre-built cores make it fast, cheap, and easy to drop new features into your product. "SILK Inside"?

and the move to all IP transmission

Most mobile and landline phone companies have switched their plumbing from analog to digital to Internet Protocol.

there is an opportunity to finally break through the POTS bandwidth barrier.

POTS (plain old telephone service) is basic phone service, the one with the 3kHz bandwidth limits. Could the breakthrough be offering SILK Inside in the routers PSTN services use? In mobile phones?

Jonathan will discuss the complex audio codec landscape

Ummm. I haven't a clue. But Jonathan should know; he's been working in the codec business for years. 

and put forth a proposal for how we [the Industry] can make wideband audio ubiquitous.

If you want something ubiquitous, you have to take away cost and risk. Sounds like open source to me.

So, again, this is me guessing what Skype will announce and all errors are mine:

1. Skype will release SILK with an open source license.
2. Skype will partner with an ASIC semiconductor manufacturer to release SILK in VHDL (or another chip design language).
3. Skype has partnerships with Cisco, Motorola, Nokia and other companies to use the chips in networking products and mobile handsets.

Let me make another assumption. Skype will announce a public platform in 2009. So people could make their own Skype clients or build Skype into their own products/services. To make that work, Skype needs to share codecs and encryption with developers. Licenses could be for packaged software or for open source libraries. I'm betting on open source for the codecs and shrinkwrapped for the encryption.

What's your wild guess?

Unlike death and taxes, mobile Skype is not certain

Vodafone, Orange, O2 and others will have to succumb to the market reality that the Skype offering is a win-win...
— Jim Courtney

Jim, you could be right, but I don't think so.

There's nothing inevitable about Skype having success with other carriers, Nokia or not. Nokia sales are down about 25% from last year and Nokia has negligible share of US markets. That's not a powerful position from which to bargain.

Skype had to sit down with 3 and negotiate terms, but Skype hasn't done much if anything with the other mobile carriers. Unlike 3, Skype@Nokia is a fête accompli, a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. The deal is a smack in the face to carriers who thought they had time to make their own Skype-killers, to wield lobbying power with regulators, to get their iPhone on and sell data plans without cannibalizing voice revenue.

Do you really think a year of 3 making a little coin will be enough to convince ranks of mobile execs to abandon strategies they just spent years and career capital to put in place? Do you really think they are excited about the chance to partner with an auction company that's been sucking the profit out of international calling and undercutting broadband voice pricing?

They are wedded to their value-added projects ("you don’t want to be just a dumb pipe do you?"), and Skype isn't even on the menu.

The opportunity for an upside and the threat if they don't sign on had better be overwhelming for them to risk their jobs, their shareholders' ire, and this quarter's cashflow. Skype's mobile bizdev team has a hard job ahead, and acceptance any time soon is far from certain.

Monday reading

Business

Skype's 2008Q4 contribution falls from Q3, but still profitable. (Jean Mercier)

20% off the Emerging Communications Conference with 'skypejournal' discount code. See you at the SFO Marriott this week.

UK's O2 and Orange oppose Nokia+Skype phones, T-Mobile support them, and Vodafone hasn't said. "if you spend upwards of £40m per year building your brand, you don’t want to be just a dumb pipe do you?" Sounds like hard bargaining to me. (P.S. Wishing/Branding you're not a dumb pipe doesn't make it so.)  (Mobile Today)

AIM for iPhone comes out. AIM Free is ad supported. AIM Paid is... price TBD. Now supporting multiple accounts and free SMS to people in your iPhone contact list. (Ars Technica)

Community in action

Eurojust retracts news release attacking Skype. "NOTE: This is an update of the press release issued on Friday 20 February 2009. Some of the information in this press release was issued prematurely and is therefore incorrect, as there is not yet an official case reported to Eurojust." If only the Sopranos or The Wire were still running. (Government Technology) SJ:Eurojust coordinating anti-Skype project; SJ:Evildoers trust Skype encryption, Cops seek more power

DataPortability.org calls for volunteers to fill a steering committee vacancy. One conference call per week until elections. [disclosure: I'm on the steering committee.]

Twitter Friends and the Influence of Influentials in Word of Mouth Marketing. On research performed by the HP Social Media Lab and explained by BT's JP Rangaswami. (Skillful Minds). Attention to statistics describing social conversation behavior can improve the choice of features in software like Skype.

Future visions

Theme for Supernova 2009 is "Change Networks." Think innovation/value networks but looking at how change propagates. December 1-3 in San Francisco.

Microsoft Office Labs vision 2019. Utopian vision, clutter-free, ten years' out, all feasible, if only for the wealthy. Videos and screenshots. (istartedsomething)

Marriage beginnings and endings

Father (Poland) gives daughter (Texas) away at wedding over Skype. (Killeen Daily Herald)

Ex-Wife Haunts House over Skype. (Ask Bossy column)

Do you know where your data is?

Over at DataPortability.org, I'm in a conversation about what we want to see in a modern Terms of Service or End User License Agreement. Political geography is a subset of what I want to know.

Five Location Disclosure Questions:

1. In which countries is my data stored?

A lesson from the cloud computing community: When your data leaves your country, the country where your data is stored may define and apply rights and liabilities that don't exist in your own.

For example, libel, privacy, copyright, and free speech laws vary wildly even with the EU, let alone the whole world. You may not want your medical records to be arbitrarily stored outside your own country.

Your activity may be illegal in some countries but not in yours. For example, countries enforce laws against vices (gambling, sex, alcohol, narcotics) and monopoly protection (criminalization of copyright infringement, VoIP banning) that may be legal where you live.

2. What options do I have for controlling where my data is stored?

Can I choose to keep my data within my country? Within a specific state/province?

Can I choose among countries or adherents to specific treaties?

Which ones?

3. Are all countries receiving the same terms of service?

If not, which ones are receiving variants and how are their TOS/EULAs different? Some countries don't recognize any right of privacy from the
government. e.g. China, Burma, etc. I should be able to shop for the best flavor of TOS/EULA that works for me.

4. Who owns the company?

This reveals potential for bias and conflicts of interest. Share with me whether you are "Privately held", "Subsidiary of", or "Publicly traded".

A hypothetical Skype employee may not want to share certain information with a StumbleUpon site where her web surfing behavior (looking for a new job on company time?) can flow back to eBay (which owns both Skype and StumbleUpon) and her boss.

5. In which country/countries (and states/provinces) is this site's owner incorporated?

This information tells me how much access do I have to legal remedies and which laws govern this company. My choice to use a service and how much information I disclose to/through it depends on whether the company is chartered in a war zone, or in a country with stronger privacy laws than my own.

On the path to location informed social data portability 

• Does your TOC/EULA disclose this information? Few do. How do we make disclosure valuable to site operators?
• Can you even answer these questions? Are your back-office operations so decentralized, diffuse, virtualized, and outsourced location metadata is hard to find? How can we make it easier to collect this information and organize it for sharing?
• How can we present answers effectively? Nobody wants another zillion pages of legalese. Designing generic TOC/EULA for rapid understanding and visualization will make disclosure useful and worth the effort.

I'm eager to discuss this at the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference in May 2009.

tags: privacy, dataportability, policy, location, geography, jurisdiction, nexus, tos, eula, terms, conditions, agreement, contract, geodata, metadata, proximity, cloudcomputing, disclosure, registration

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foto: cc-by Shahram Sharif