• Alex Kazim on What should Skype Journal be?

  I think the biggest thing missing from the Skype ecosystem right now is an enthusiast-type magazine, something like MacWorld to the Mac. And it might be a pretty good formula to follow:

  + Skype News

  + Reviews of new Products from Skype, 3rd party software developers, hardware, etc. As an example, we estimate there are over 400+ Skype-specific SKUs at retail, yet even for headsets, no one does comprehensive reviews of them.

  + Articles on "hidden" product features, e.g., persistent chats

  + "How do I" articles, e.g., how to set up a killer conferencing system on the cheap using Skype

  + From a revenue standpoint, keep the ads but make them more targeted to the VoIP market. You could also add events (e.g., MacWorld SF). And you could charge for full content, but rather than a subscription, I would suggest using PayPal for a per-article fee. PayPal's new micro-payment pricing makes this effective even down to $0.25 per article.

  Alex

• Barbara on What should Skype Journal be?

  Phil:

  It would be great it there could be several subsets of the Skype Journal... and in my case a subset that works with language educators on how to improve this tool for those of us who choose to use this as part of our language teaching.

  Todd Bryant at Dickinson College has put together a great site called Mixxer.. a place where language classes or individuals could come together and request exchanges using skype. (http://langtech.dickinson.edu/globalclass/login.aspx)
  It would be great if Skype could promote that, or work in tandem with that, to provide more connections for language students.

  There are also many informal and formal learning communities that would be happy to have themselves publicized via Skype Jounral in order to facilitate (again) more connections between language speakers.

  I agree with the previous commenter...email updates would be helpful. The problem with blogs such as this one is that once they become popular (and useful, and full of info) there is aways so much traffic and so much information that it is hard to navigate. A weekly summary of what is new and interesting (like what the Thursday Circuits section of the NYTimes does) would be a great help.

  In that way if you do adopt a "many Skype journals within one" model, we can all be kept aware of the various threads and still follow our own.

  Hope that helps.

  One question I have though: what is the relationship between the Skype Journal and the Skype PR folks (formerly the EBay PR folks): it would seem to me that you should be working in tandem, but some times it seems like you are working slightly at cross purposes... or do I have that wrong?

  My 2 and a few more cents...

  Barbara

• Tomasz Tybulewicz on What should Skype Journal be?

  1. More SkypeNews - I'd love to see a deep review of any new Skype functionality
  
  2. Tips to have better skype experience (like the old ones about webcams, correct light and so on)
  
  3. SkypeForum Digest - what's hot and interesting in skypeWorld?
  
  4. RSS is not very popular - I think email updates (daily/weekly) will be very useful for not so tech-aware people
  

• Aghper on What should Skype Journal be?

  I read your skype journal everyday.One thing I like is when you show new products like USB phone that works with skype and another thing is the tips how to use skype's feature like offline 15sec when sound quality is bad,...keep on the good work.
  

• Jean Mercier on What should Skype Journal be?

  Hello Phil,
  Herewith my personal opinions and answers ...

  * For whom should Skype Journal write?
  Skype and VoIP Users: potential users, new users, experienced users, including businesses
  Skype management: to transmit some "user feelings"

  * What problems do our readers have?
  Readers who have technical Skype problems (call quality, freezing, failures, etc.) should be send to the Skype Forum.
  Readers who search for solutions to make their Skype experience more valuable (software or hardware add-ons, ways to use it, ...) should find inspiration in Skype Journal.

  * How should we make money?
  Testing of hardware and software for a fee, but probably you already do that.
  Another possibility could be to have a much larger pool of international consultants for Skype related projects.

  * Which languages should we support?
  Why not having Chinese, Brazilian or Italian (and so on) bloggers for Skype Journal. The readers could perhaps tick (checkbox?) which languages they want to appear on their screen?

  * Do we have too many "wishlist" types of posts?
  In my opinion there are too many posts (the last 6 months) that are not related to Skype. I think you should stick to the core business: Skype (software - hardware - social impact - etc.). I have seen some posts that were philosophical, or other personal opinions and feelings without any relation to Skype :-(

  * What mix of writing styles and topics works best?
  These are two different questions:
  Writing styles: no opinion
  Topics: see above

  * What consulting services might we offer to individuals and businesses?
  See also above ...
  But i think businesses are preocupied with the following things:
  - functionality
  - reliability
  - safety
  - benefits and costs
  This is what consulting should focus on.

  * Should we align and focus our content to support our consulting services?
  Yes, why not ...

  * How much does a "pretty" site matter? Should we invest in a designer?
  Site design is not bad ... there is worse

  * Should we cover Skype business and technology partners in greater depth?
  Can you still dig deeper? ;-)

  * What can we do to attract more readers? To keep our readers?
  As said before: stick to the core business (i am sometimes dissapointed the last months!). And indeed, continue to present them with solutions to their problems, concerns, applicability.

  * What reader services should we add to our site? How can we organize our site better? What can we lose from our site?
  Perhaps another way to make money ...
  Links to shops in the neighbourhood of the reader where he can find products that have been reviewed and tested?
  Archives per month is not useful (right side of the page), the search function is more practical!

  * In the RSS age, would anyone like to get Skype Journal via email? in print?
  NO!

  * What sorts of business alliances and partners should SJ cultivate?
  no opinion

  * Is our brand focus on Skype too narrow, considering all the great innovations outside the Skype universe? How could we pursue that without diluting our identity? without spreading our editorial efforts too thin?
  Stick to core business (for the time being)

  * How well are evaluating products at "Skype Journal Labs"? Where can we take it in the next year?
  What i like is that the evaluations also speak about the "problems" with some products. Much better then the "Skype Certified" logo!

  * Should we split up into several sister sites to better serve our different kinds of readers? One for newbies and power users, one for phreaks and geeks, and one for suits?
  You could have an index with a classification (instead of the "Archives" column) where you put categories like:
  - Skype for newbies
  - API related
  - hardware
  - software add-ons
  - tricks
  - statistics
  - etc.

  * How can we make Skype a better place for contributors like photographers, writers, researchers, statisticicans?
  The last months i receive regularly e-mails asking for statistical data on Skype, from University Professors, Students, once a Business ... and yourself ;-) so, definitely this would be added value for your visitors!!!!!

  * Should we be podcasting and vlogging? Skype Journal, the television show?
  Personally i am NOT interested!

  * What's the one most important thing we can do better in the next 30 days?
  The preview of posts (comments) doesn't work! Fix it!

  * What should Skype Journal be this time next year?
  Make it more global: Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin-America are almost not represented in Skype Journal. Some of these continents have particular problems, for which there certainly are particular solutions!

• continued in the Skype Journal Comment River: 200 fresh comments

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