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Stuart Henshall
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Conference Call Power

April 15, 2005 09:24 AM

Topics: stories

What's the easiest way to get your new friends hooked on Skype? It's conference call power. It's almost impossible for a normal human being to make a conference call. In business someone always arranges it and at home we don't have the equipment or it's just plain expensive.

I've been on Skype so long you can forget how new people now get their introductions. When I first started on Skype I had to find a buddy. That meant using Yahoo to get them to download it just so we could test it. Then I had to convert more people to the cause. Many didn't get it and couldn't see the need. Even when Skype introduced conferencing it was new and neat... it didn't bring us any closer to the family members that just hadn't gotten round to it, or the colleagues that don't want their PC's ringing etc. (That will be quaint one day!)

Then over months Skype slipped in SkypeOut and more recently began expanding SkypeIn options. Easy for the early adopter to miss that these "game-changing" features also revolutionize the first experiences.

So when you introduce someone new to Skype today. Install it on their PC, get them a SkypeOut Account and make them call their home phone or the cell in your hand. Then get them to conference in a friend or family member. Then find another one to conference in. I'm sure they will tell you exactly what Bill told me his friend was doing. "You'll never believe what I'm doing - calling and conferencing you all together using my PC."

Conference call power creates a different set of associations immediately. It implies that the tool is more collaborative than the telephone and at this point your friend doesn't even have to have any buddies to be getting value. Note I do hope you added yourself!

So with this observation in hand I visited the Skype website again. It's easy to miss that conference calls are even possible on the home page and they are not mentioned on the product page. Perhaps... we are all taking something that is now simple to us, far too much for granted. I could not run my business without the Skype conferencing capability. I know many others that say the same thing. Podcasters couldn't be doing some of their multi-party podcasts. The message for me.. is there's a message missing in the mix.

Go out and connect everyone in your family this weekend all at once. I did, not long ago, and it was fun.

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Posts linking to Conference Call Power:

» Skype conference calls power today's distributed development teams from North American Bandwidth News

We use Skype for our business and couldn't live without and next thing for us is to try Skype conferencing ... [Read More]

Tracked on April 15, 2005 5:32 PM

» Rethinking Skype Conference Call Scenario from b.cognosco
Skype Journal has me rethinking my opinion on Skype conference calls . As usual, I was thinking inside-the-box and viewing conference calls as requiring individual endpoint origination (participants should call into the conference.) Of course, with Sky... [Read More]

Tracked on April 15, 2005 10:25 PM

» Skype conference calls from Lifehacker
Skype user Stuart Henshall thinks that conference calling is the best way to get people hooked on Skype internet telephony. Skype allows you to call regular phone lines from your computer and conference in any number of other callers... [Read More]

Tracked on April 18, 2005 2:10 PM

» VoIP Podcast from James Seng's Blog

Stuart and myself did a podcast interview on VoIP two weeks ago.

ps: Man, I sound pretty bad in the beginning but if you [Read More]

Tracked on April 24, 2005 6:20 AM

Comments

Posted by: Uri L. at April 15, 2005 3:18 PM

Can't agree more with that.

Conferncing with skype has become a daily routine for us at work.

Skype conferencing greatly empowers SMB's.

As well as using the voicemail carefully to leave small reminders or brief messages that do not demand a chat.

Posted by: Chris at April 18, 2005 5:01 PM

I have to say, I tried this out based on your post and, like many of its genre before it, uninstalled it. I've got a decent laptop that does some good audio tricks (including recording with MS OneNote), but anything that makes me wear a headset is out...

Posted by: Matt at April 19, 2005 1:28 PM

please stop bragging about using Skype for years, being an early adopter and everything, it ruins the arcticle and bring nothing to the paper...

Mt

Posted by: Phil Wolff at April 19, 2005 7:09 PM

Chris, I don't use a headset most of the time. I have a lapel mike and my computer's speakers working great 90% of the time.

Matt, thanks for the editorial pointer. imho, Stuart was not bragging; that's not his style. Read it again: he's observing himself in a different situation and drawing the contrast. He's also telling you something about himself and how he's looking at the problems, and some people find that interesting. You didn't, and thanks again for speaking up.

Posted by: Mark Offer at April 24, 2005 10:09 AM

Hi
Just want to let you know that skype is now blocked in the UAE.I am unable to purchase time as the page cannot be displayed. Please could you provide an alternative entry into your site in order for me to continue using your product, my friebnds would appreciate that as well. This is the only form of economic communication with family and friends that is at our disposal.

Kind regards

Mark Offer

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