There's a new calendar+groupware in town for Skypers and it brings some slick new features with it. I met yesterday with the management team at Airena who took me through the paces on their Airset - Skype integrated solution for group management. AirSet software allows users to manage all their groups - family, work, social - in one place using a free Web-based service that includes calendars, address books, to-do lists and blogs. It's an interesting product and I've extended my testing to a group calendar for the Skype Journal and another for the family.

Airset was described to me as a "Lifeware" product for the small companies, and individuals that want control of their life but don't have access to MS Exchange servers and the complex systems that groupware traditionally requires. The more I've played with it the more it makes sense to me. I'm not part of a large company and yet I do need to coordinate calendars, and updates with others. Similarly, many social networking services for me are simply 'broken" as they don't integrate effectively with the events in my life. It's also responds quickly as a result of being "Ajax-enabled". I'll leave that to the real techies.

I'm pleased to see Airset incorporate Skype. By using Skype presence information and adding easy calling it provides a whole new dimension to managing events. It's also yet another illustration of where communications is going.

Thinking about setting an appointment for the group; Skype makes it easy to check online; potentially reducing time and adding productivity. By adding Skype, now voice services are integrated so instant conference calls or mulit-chats can help with what were once logistical nightmares. Airset is also demonstrating what "mashups" are all about. If you look deeper they are also hooking into Google Maps and tying mapping information to contact details. Thus uploading your contacts means you now have a map at a click for everyone.

A point worth remembering is you can manage your groups, (eg a groups calendar) and never ever have any of your contacts join up and be Airset members. AirSet will still send them messages and reminders. For those wanting to augment email reminders with mobile updates then Arena has a premium service which I'm sure is going to evolve to add a lot more. Updates are sent by email and SMS is ready to integrate with your mobile phone. Overall it synched quickly and easily with my Outlook contacts and calendar system. I even feel happier that I now have a backup for that part of my life!

There are other Skype related groupware products in the works. However, this is a strong signal (even late!) that companies providing other core services (eg an accounting package) should be racing to add VoIP functionality to their solutions. Another thing to keep in mind. Airena like others should be complemented for testing and moving forward with Skype and Google Maps API integrations. However, soon we are going to see IM agnostic solutions. Airset could just as easily cross connect different IM systems or turn their learnings to Google Talk or Gizmo.

So whats your Calendar solution? Does it integrate with Skype? Can you access it anywhere?

Help me talk better.

There is no way I'm going to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It's crazy. Nevertheless, National Novel Writing Month is in November this year. Hundreds of "winners" cross the finish line through the power of a clear goal (50k words), lowered expectations (this is a rough draft; quality follows quantity), and a deadline.

Many of my conversations would benefit from a deadline.

1. I'd waste less time.
2. Through an ounce of planning, everyone would get what they need from the chat or call.
3. The conversation would be less likely to spill over into the rest of my schedule.
4. It sets expectations for conversation style: short, pointed, transactional, focused.

Two kinds of deadlines:

1. The call. We promise to start this call by 11:01 and end by 11:14.
2. The agenda. Time boxes for talking points.
   • Review/change topics for this call (11:01-11:02)
   • Check in on health, happiness, social lives (11:02-11:04)
   • College update (11:04-11:07)
   • How's the family (11:07-11:10)
   • Send money (11:10-11:13)
   • Schedule next call (11:13-11:14)

This is standard stuff on running better meetings.

I want Skype to help by being more aware of time. For example:

• Launch conversations (voice and chat) from a calendar automatically.
• Remind me of my call/meeting schedule
• Offer to help set up an agenda for the meeting.
• Ping everyone in a conversation with a beep and a private text message about pending deadlines (this topic called "treasurer's report" ends in 1 minute, next topic: "membership report")
• Let us change/revise the agenda in mid-call
• Show a countdown clock in the conversation window with both the big countdown (end of call) and the smaller one (end of topic)

I can start an egg timer or download a software timer. But those are both out of context and not part of the collaboration. Time boxing within the user interface, preserving the visual and cognitive framework of the call/chat will improve the success of the conversation.

Help users and developers build this

This is exactly the kind of value-add I'd like users and developers to build. However today's license, terms of service, and API are hostile to UI changes.

You can see that Skype's design has been amazing about getting users into a conversation, and the hard work of keeping the technical quality high. Now it's time to go inside the call: Help our many styles of conversation be more effective.

I don't expect Skype to help me organize a party, plan a wedding, play a game, hold a quality circle meeting, answer a bomb threat, or talk about my car with a potential bidder. I do want Skype (sometime in 2006, please) to let me use, create and share "conversation helpers" the way I use, create and share templates in PowerPoint and Word. Let the power of millions of users shape conversation to their ends.

Have better conversations with Skype

As with PowerPoint templates, most conversations guides will be free and a few worth money. Please don't think of this as a ringtone opportunity. Think of this as (a) part of Skype's platforming strategy, (b) making Skype more social (as we share conversation helpers), (c) making Skype conversations more productive than conversations in other media.

So often you just reach out and touch someone, a personal connection. But then...

How much do you talk on purpose?

p.s. I'm enjoying No Plot? No Problem! right now. Tips on prepping for and surviving your four week novel writing.

p.p.s Congrats to Hyland Baron for joining the NaNoWriMo team. Hyland makes projects more fun and effective.

By Peter Henning, Skype Super User and Beta Tester. Bucharest, Romania

Today we got a brand new toy from Skype, it is called Skype for Outlook. It integrates into Microsoft Outlook, the email and calendaring program in Microsoft's Office Suite.

This toolbar enables you to use Skype directly from Outlook and should work on all versions of Outlook beginning from version 2000 onwards on both Windows XP and Windows 2000. Skype for Outlook is a plugin for Skype therefore Skype needs to be installed on your system for the toolbar to work. As a side note, Outlook is a different product than Outlook Express which comes free with Windows and this toolbar will NOT work with Outlook Express.

Okay, nice new toy, but do you need it?

To answer this question you need to ask yourself if you are still using mail or have you moved on? To be honest I don't really use mail for personal communication anymore, but do get a lot of business related mail from people I know, which is why I love this toolbar.

Skype Staff have recognized that even though they use email less and less, some people and workplaces are still heavily reliant on email. This toolbar comes to their help in providing ways to make communication seamless.

Installation is fast

To install Skype for Outlook toolbar, just download it, run the .exe and follow the instructions. When you restart Outlook, you be will prompted to authorize an application called SKYPEOBE to use Skype. You should authorize this as it is essential for the toolbar to work.

So, what does it do?

One of the more important things about it is that it integrates Skype presence information into Outlook. Receiving mail from a contact and seeing that his is online can lead to a much quicker response and an increase in productivity to those who rely heavily on email.

Matching Outlook contacts to Skype contacts is easy.

To be able to associate a Skype name to an outlook contact just press the Looking glass icon on the toolbar. Skype for Outlook tries to find a match from you current Skype contact based on Name and Email, it if fails you can open the combobox and select it yourself. If you don't have the Skype name of that contact in your Skype contact list you can associate by typing it in. There is also an option to search for the contacts Skype name using Skype's integrated search feature.

Skype stores the Skype name information in the contact's radio phone field so you can complete this manually too.

There isn't any way of associating multiple Skype names with one contact, however I was told that this feature is something that they are looking into for the next release.

If you have completed the task successfully, clicking on an email received from Skype contact would show his/her presence and name on the toolbar.

Now after you have set up the associations is very simple to use. You can either select what you want to do from the toolbar combobox or you can just hit the appropriate buttons to call or send instant message. You can also do this by right clicking the email and going to the Skype for Outlook option.

The toolbar recognizes Skype contacts even from the cc and to email headers, giving you the ability to instantly call and chat to people who have received the same email.

You can also edit the Skype name either by manually modifying the Radio Phone field or clicking on the 'Edit Skype name...' option in the toolbar combobox.

Something that I found very neat is that Skype for Outlook enables you to call the phone numbers of Outlook contacts even without these being added to your Skype contact list.

You can also set the default country code so if the phone number in your contacts' profile is in local format (not in international), Skype can complete the phone number when attempting to call such a contact without your intervention.

Skype names and telephone numbers are also recognized in the body of an email, making it even more convenient for you to get in touch with whoever you want.

Care to start a group chat from email messages? You can do that too. Even chat topics are automatically set to the emails subject.

Credits

Special thanks for this product goes to Peter Kalmstrom who started working on an Outlook plugin for Skype quite a while back, drawing the attention of Skype management and having been hired as a contractor to develop this product. Recently he has been hired full time at Skype to continue the development of Skype for Outlook. Mat Taylor, Skype London, who manags the API and other third party develper's efforts helped do the engineering specifications and testing. Applause to both!

Other features include:

• Record journal entries for all incoming Skype calls
• Automatically add Skype callto signatures to outgoing email messages.
• Import contacts to Skype direct from Outlook.
• Open Outlook contact automatically for incoming calls.
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Later today, Skype Journal will feature another exclusive preview of another new Skype tool.