Deal done. Retail VOIP in the offing? Views later.

eBay has agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA, the global Internet communications company, for approximately $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration.

Skype generated approximately $7 million in revenues in 2004, and the company anticipates that it will generate an estimated $60 million in revenues in 2005 and more than $200 million in 2006. For Q4-05, eBay expects the acquisition to be dilutive to pro forma and GAAP earnings per share by $0.01 and $0.04 respectively. For the full year 2006, eBay expects the transaction to be dilutive to pro forma and GAAP earnings per share by $0.04 and $0.12 respectively, with breakeven on a pro forma basis expected in the fourth quarter of 2006. On a long-term basis, eBay expects Skype operating margins could be in the range of 20% to 25%.

The acquisition is subject to various closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Full text of news release...

On Skype.com:

eBay to Acquire Skype

London, September 12, 2005 – eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY; www.ebay.com) has agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA, the global Internet communications company, for approximately $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration. The acquisition will strengthen eBay’s global marketplace and payments platform, while opening several new lines of business and creating significant new monetization opportunities for the company. The deal also represents a major opportunity for Skype to advance its leadership in Internet voice communications and offer people worldwide new ways to communicate in a global online era. Skype, eBay and PayPal will create an unparalleled ecommerce and communications engine for buyers and sellers around the world.

“Communications is at the heart of ecommerce and community,” said Meg Whitman, President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay. “By combining the two leading ecommerce franchises, eBay and PayPal, with the leader in Internet voice communications, we will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the Net.”

Founded in 2002 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Skype offers high-quality voice communications to anyone with an Internet connection anywhere in the world. The Skype software is easy to download and install, and enables free calls between Skype users online. Skype’s premium services provide low-cost connectivity to traditional fixed and mobile telephones. Skype’s software also offers a robust set of features, including voicemail, instant messaging, call forwarding and conference calling. Upcoming product innovations include Skype video, expressive content such as avatars, and customized toolbars for Outlook and Internet Explorer.

One of the fastest growing companies on the Internet, Skype already has 54 million members in 225 countries and territories. Skype is currently adding approximately 150,000 users a day and has created a thriving ecosystem of products, services, developers, and affiliates. Skype is considered the market leader in virtually all countries in which it does business. In North America alone, Skype has more users and serves more voice minutes than any other Internet voice communications provider.

“Our vision for Skype has always been to build the world’s largest communications business and revolutionize the ease with which people can communicate through the Internet,” said Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and co-founder. “We can’t think of any better platform to fulfill this vision to become the voice of the Internet than with eBay and PayPal.”

“We’re great admirers of how eBay and PayPal have simplified global ecommerce and payments,” said Janus Friis, Skype co-founder and senior vice president, strategy. “Together we feel we can really change the way that people communicate, shop and do business online.”

Zennström and Friis will remain in their current positions. Zennström will report to eBay CEO Whitman and join eBay’s senior executive team.

A Powerful Ecommerce and Communications Engine

Online shopping depends on a number of factors to function well. Communications, like payments and shipping, is a critical part of this process. Skype will streamline and improve communications between buyers and sellers as it is integrated into the eBay marketplace. Buyers will gain an easy way to talk to sellers quickly and get the information they need to buy, and sellers can more easily build relationships with customers and close sales. As a result, Skype can increase the velocity of trade on eBay, especially in categories that require more involved communications such as used cars, business and industrial equipment, and high-end collectibles.

The acquisition also enables eBay and Skype to pursue entirely new lines of business. For example, in addition to eBay’s current transaction-based fees, ecommerce communications could be monetized on a pay-per-call basis through Skype. Pay-per-call communications opens up new categories of ecommerce, especially for those sectors that depend on a lead-generation model such as personal and business services, travel, new cars, and real estate. eBay’s other shopping websites — Shopping.com, Rent.com, Marktplaats.nl and Kijiji – can also benefit from the integration of Skype.

PayPal and Skype also make a powerful combination. For example, a PayPal wallet associated with each Skype account could make it much easier for users to pay for Skype fee-based services, adding to the number of PayPal accounts and increasing payment volume.

In addition, Skype can help expand the eBay and PayPal global footprint by providing buyers and sellers in emerging ecommerce markets, such as China, India, and Russia, with a more personal way to communicate online. And consumers in markets where eBay currently has a limited presence, such as Japan and Scandinavia, can learn about eBay and PayPal through Skype. Skype can also help streamline cross-border trading and communications.

With its rapidly expanding network of users, the Skype business complements the eBay and PayPal platforms. Each business is self-reinforcing, organically bringing greater returns with each new user or transaction. The three services can also reinforce and accelerate the growth of one another, thereby increasing the value of the combined businesses. Working together, they can create an unparalleled engine for ecommerce and communications around the world.

Transaction and Financial Information

eBay will acquire all of the outstanding shares of privately-held Skype for a total up-front consideration of approximately €2.1 billion, or approximately $2.6 billion, which is comprised of $1.3 billion in cash and the value of 32.4 million shares of eBay stock, which are subject to certain restrictions on resale.

The maximum amount potentially payable under the performance-based earn-out is approximately €1.2 billion, or approximately $1.5 billion, and would be payable in cash or eBay stock, at eBay’s discretion, with an expected payment date in 2008 or 2009. Skype shareholders were offered the choice between several consideration options for their shares. Shareholders representing approximately 40% of the Skype shares chose to receive a single payment in cash and eBay stock at the close of the transaction. Shareholders representing the remaining 60% of the Skype shares chose to receive a reduced up-front payment in cash and eBay stock at the close plus potential future earn-out payments which are based on performance-based goals for active users, gross profit and revenue.

The above-mentioned dollar and eBay share amounts are approximate, based on the Euro-Dollar exchange rate and eBay’s stock price as of September 9, 2005. The final value of the stock component of the consideration may vary significantly from this estimate based on the value of eBay stock at closing.

Skype generated approximately $7 million in revenues in 2004, and the company anticipates that it will generate an estimated $60 million in revenues in 2005 and more than $200 million in 2006. For Q4-05, eBay expects the acquisition to be dilutive to pro forma and GAAP earnings per share by $0.01 and $0.04 respectively. For the full year 2006, eBay expects the transaction to be dilutive to pro forma and GAAP earnings per share by $0.04 and $0.12 respectively, with breakeven on a pro forma basis expected in the fourth quarter of 2006. On a long-term basis, eBay expects Skype operating margins could be in the range of 20% to 25%.

The acquisition is subject to various closing conditions and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2005.
About eBay Inc.

Founded in 1995, eBay pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity. eBay enables ecommerce on a local, national and international basis with an array of websites – including the eBay Marketplace, PayPal, Kijiji, Rent.com and Shopping.com – that bring together millions of buyers and sellers every day.

About Skype Technologies SA

Skype, the Global Internet Communications Company™, allows people everywhere to make free, unlimited, superior quality voice calls via its award-winning innovative peer-to-peer software for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Pocket PC platforms. Skype is available in 27 languages and is the fastest growing voice communications offering worldwide. Since its launch in August 2003, Skype has been downloaded more than 163 million times in 225 countries and territories. Fifty-four million people are registered to use Skype’s free services, with over 3 million simultaneous users on the network at any one time. Skype Technologies SA is headquartered in Luxembourg and is growing its offices in London and Estonia.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements regarding Skype and the expected impact of the acquisition of Skype on eBay’s financial results. Those statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those discussed. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the timing of the closing of the transaction, the possibility that the transaction may not close, the reaction of the users of Skype’s services, the future growth of Skype’s user base and public acceptance of Internet voice communication services, rapid technological changes in the Internet voice communications sector, the reaction of competitors to the transaction, global developments in the regulation of Internet voice communication services including those provided by Skype, the possibility that integration of Skype’s offerings following the transaction may be more difficult than expected, and the possibility that entry by Skype and eBay into potential new lines of business will not be successful. More information about potential factors which could affect eBay’s business and financial results is included in eBay’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, the company’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to eBay on the date hereof, and eBay assumes no obligation to update such statements.

The eBay announcement:

***A New Way to Communicate***

I’m excited to let you know that eBay plans to acquire Skype, the leader in online voice communications.

Skype has set a new standard in online voice communications with
outstanding sound quality and unmatched ease of use. And like eBay,
Skype has a fast-growing community -- some 54 million Skype users
around the world already use their PCs to talk with one another.

And best of all, conversations between Skype users via PC are free. You
can get up and running on Skype in just a few minutes. Just go to http://www.skype.com/go/x.home to learn more and download the free Skype software application. Try it – it’s fun!

Over time, we intend to make voice communications a part of the eBay
marketplace – a huge step forward in making transactions faster and
easier, as well as bringing even more interactivity and humanity to the
eBay Community.

You can include your Skype ID in your About Me page. For now, however,
Skype links may not appear in View Item pages. We’ll be working with
you, our Community, over the next few weeks to thoughtfully work out
the details of how eBay and Skype will interact, including any policy
changes that may be required.

We expect this acquisition to be finalized soon. In the meantime, you can learn more about our Skype plans in the news release we issued just a few minutes ago.

Working together, eBay, PayPal and Skype will redefine online trade and
community. I hope you’ll join us in this exciting new chapter in eBay’s
history.

Sincerely,

Meg

I've been taking turns manning the virtual call centre we have set up using Skype linked to KatrinaHelp, to help cover 24 hours of the day. I am beginning to understand what it feels like to be a call-centre operator :).

What amazes me though, is that I can volunteer my time, sitting in my living room at home in Mumbai India, and be of use to help those seeking information about their loved ones who are missing on that other side of the world. This morning, I was on a shift for a couple of hours, and I received about 8 calls on our Skypein number, and made a few on SkypeOut. It was really rewarding to be able to point the callers to resources and hook them up with those offering help. And they were so grateful someone was listening to them, and that they did not have to figure out how to navigate pages on websites and wikis.

Imagine how it would be to have a virtual Skype phone bank. One that is not just virtual, but ad hoc. Just-in-time emergent support. Always on when we have a bank of volunteers from all over the world, and at all hours. Our way of reaching out and helping those in distress.

The SkypeNet and SkypeWeb announcements are interesting. A bit scary too. Not for Google, the intended target, but possibly for members of the Skype Developer Community.

Lenn Pryor in today's Share Skype blog had this to say,

"We are announcing two new initiatives that make Skype and the Web a little more interesting and open up new possibilities for the developer and partner community... "

I am glad Lenn feels that SkypeNet and SkypeWeb will "open up new possibilities" because Skype's actions have been shutting down opportunities for developers.

Using the Skype API the Development Community created Web Presence Applications, integrations to e-mail systems like Outlook, and browsers like Internet Explorer, along with voice messaging/answering systems, like Pamela. In each case Skype moved into these tested and proven markets, thus eating the children they had spawned. Now the Skype Ecosystem is offered another API─ SkypeNet API.

For me, Skype’s new announcement just killed a $10,000+ contract for web presence I spent five months cultivating. Thanks, Skype. However, where I see a blunder of biblical proportions (lev 26:29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.), Martin Carleton, a developer of the Jyve Web Plugin for Skype, sees the move by Skype to be very positive.

A third perspective comes from Martin Geddes,

“Skype's limited resources are too diffused. Is a Skype toolbar really the biggest strategic imperative, something that cannot be done by a third party? An in-house video solution? Yet another web presence server?”

If Martin's insight is correct then Skype may be shooting itself in both feet: loss of strategic focus and a disheartened ecosystem. These are big problems to have just as Google Talk is emerging into the marketplace and as Yahoo and Microsoft sharpen their swords.

I have yet to meet a software developer who has made any money with their Skype Add-on applications. And yet these add-ons have created value for Skype. CRM and Outlook add-ons increase the use of SkypeOut. But the developers get no share of the revenue. Isn’t sharing good?

What do you see? Is Skype eating its children? Is SkypeNet and SkypeWeb creating new developer opportunities? Is Skype losing strategic focus? Tell us what you see.

Have just read Richard Stastny's comprehensive recount of the goings-on around ENUM at the IETF meeting in Paris. I can't but help feel that, despite the good intentions, some decidedly anti-competitive actions are going on here by the carriers.

In essence, the telcos are keeping control over a numbering business that is being run as a cartel that keeps out non-POTS VoIP applications, and discourages new POTS entrants. And since there is (today) no defensible service element in "VoIP service" other than the trivial routing function, the erection of artificial barriers to enable rent-seeking is priority #1, #2 and #3 in telcoland.

The importance of phone numbers is too easily dismissed in a world of email addresses, Skype IDs and IM buddies. Numbers work across all alphabets and typefaces, are relatively unambiguous, are easily entered and displayed on restricted UIs, and can easily be conveyed verbally and in print. We have a system for mnemonic mapping to letters where necessary. Competing global numbering schemes are unlikely to emerge, because of potential for namespace confusion (although local versions such as SMS short codes do sprout up). Numbering is serious business, if somewhat obscure and technocratic. Despite their sometimes confusing split semantics as "naming" and "routing" objects, they need not be casually dismissed as an obsolete anachronism of the pre-IP world.

The technical problem any ENUM system solves is the conversion of a phone number to any other form of URL (and back again). The specific business problem that Carrier ENUM purports to solve is one of trust. If the user is empowered to create records in the routing table for IP communications, you face two problems. Does the user really own/control the ID that they are mapping from? And do they own the one that they are mapping to?

The puchase of the voice service acts as the "trust anchor" — if we gave you the phone number and VoIP URL, the mapping must be correct.

Yet in doing this Carrier ENUM denies you any possibility of asserting ownership over your phone number independently of purchasing an overpriced "voice service". It's a bit like you only being able to buy domain names in conjunction with getting an email account at AOL or MSN. If you happened to want to use your email address (think: "phone number") in some crazy new-fangled service like instant messaging (think: VoIP), you've got a problem. Oh, sure, you can do it in various numbering range ghettos that aren't routed by half the world (and are charged at random rates by the other half). It's like Microsoft's support for Apple — sure, we like competition, as long as it knows its place.

With domain names, I can obtain clear ownership. I get to set a record for my domain that says who I'm empowering to manage the domain's details for me. In other words, someone thought through the various roles of ownership, assignment, management, operation, etc. in advance. They made a reasonable stab at creating a system that separated them. With hindsight we know it's not perfect and involves excessive expense, but it's quite good.

What you would really like to be able to do is enter someone's phone number in Skype, call them, and if they're using a Skype-enabled device you get an ecrypted, wideband audio Skype call. But we can't do that easily today because I could claim to have your phone number, and calls to you would come to me.

I'm totally guessing, but I assume that the PhoneGnome device (which bridges PSTN and VoIP calling) has some patented secret provisioning sauce to tackle this problem. The device, I suppose, places a free PSTN out-call and uses caller ID to associate the SIP address and PSTN number. (Self-provisioning would allow you to fib too easily.) But it doesn't scale well unless we all buy one; and an $119 device is kind of expensive if all you want to do is prove you are the owner of a phone number so you can use it in an IP service like Skype.

Carrier ENUM makes me feel a bit queasy, because there's no need to be a "carrier" to do VoIP or ENUM. If the VoIP application is independent of transport, will I be able to declare myself to be a carrier, obtain numbers, and participate in Carrier ENUM? Methinks not, and that smells bad. (I also suspect Carrier ENUM is great for perpetuating the dependence on SIP proxies and smart networks a-la IMS, and preventing P2P connections. You can bet the technical rules will subtly stop any domestic IP connection from being classed as "carrier grade" and allowed to participate in Carrier ENUM as a peer.)

So is the only alternative the unattainable nirvana of User ENUM, where the plebs seize control? Not necessarily, but we could take some baby steps along the way.

If I were a regulator, I'd be looking to unbundle the phone number trust function.

Luckily, we've already got a model for it, at least in the UK. If you want to port your wholesale DSL line from one company to another, the requestor must receive an authorisation code issued by the incumbent. And the incumbent must authenticate the user when they request the code.

Break apart this mechanism, and it provides me a way of requesting codes, and third parties using them to authenticate my ownership, but without actually completing a number port.

This only works for the phone number ("E164 number" in telcospeak). If I wanted to map it to my Skype ID, I still need a similar mechanism to assert ownership of that ID. This strikes me as a problem easily solved with today's digital ID technology ;)

It would not be unreasonable for a "virtual VoIP network operator" like Skype to charge you for access to this trusted directory function. Particularly if the receipient was a POTS (or POTS-on-IP) competitior that wants to disintermediate the Skype network while still allowing the use of Skype IDs! (There's an business model struggling to emerge in every VoIP operator…) Given the near-zero barrier to market entry, let the market find a price, I say.

Since numbers are also de-provisioned and re-cycled, invalidating the truth of ownership, there needs to be a mechanism to publish these events. This is non-trivial. But even if we don't solve this problem at all, the system seems stronger than the contract-based alernative of DUNDi, where the user unilaterally asserts truth in identifier ownership, and post hoc regulation deals with miscreants. At least we got the records right up front, even if they age badly.

This solution may be a turkey. I've no idea. But there are plenty of other possibilities lined up. For example, I could port control of my number to Skype, but retain the actual voice service somewhere else. If DNS can separate out the ownership, registration and operation roles, so can numbering. Part of the problem is being presented with a false dichotomy of Carrier vs. User ENUM. Another part is ENUM accepts the legacy world of phone numbers on the carrier's terms - such as accepting only the management roles that existed in the old world. It may seem pragmatic now, but we'll regret it later as new features take decades to reach "numbered" devices via the numbering cartel.

A deeper part of the problem is the assumption that we want a single, monolothic POTS application — that calling any phone number should make a single device "ring" and be answered. The idea you would place a bell in your house and remotely allow anyone in the world to activate it day or night will seem truly quaint to our grandchildren. ENUM focuses tightly on legacy phone numbers and their messed-up meanings, rather than offering a general frameworks for inter-service interoperability. Is ENUM a good answer to a bad question?

Anyhow, let's disaggregate the functions behind the Carrier ENUM curtain. Let multiple domain-specific registries and directories emerge, re-combining the elements in new and useful ways. Let them be safe in the knowledge that the records in their directories have at least some kernel of truth to them. Let some competition into places that don't know what competition and innovation are.

The world ain't fair.

Wealth is unevenly distributed, and economic mobility isn't even close to a norm. A drive west from Lake Michigan down Chicago Avenue for an hour makes that clear.

You see the same thing in Skypeland.

The millions of dollars that Skype helps keep in caller pockets? Most of that is middle and upper class money. The savings go to those with midband connectivity, with the disposable income to pay monthly what others call a day's take-home pay. Or a week's. Or longer.

The DSL or cable buy-in to the always-on Internet remains too steep or unavailable, even in the United States. Water, electricity, telephony, sewage, public safety, public health, courts, voting. It must be a mandate to add the fast net to universal access.

That's a dream of mine. Guaranteeing access to the net to everyone everywhere.

Everyone has dreams.

Many are dashed. Some don't know it. Denial for others.

Take SIP's dream. (If you're not from Planet Voipon, SIP is a telecom standard that tells software how to act like a phone network.) SIP's vision is profound and beautiful. A world without centers, where anyone can plug in to the network the way people plug in to email. Telephony as free as your Internet connection.

SIPsters don't have momentum; it's more like the inertia of the desperate who haven't an alternative. Thousands continue to invest fates and fortunes on SIP's promise. Slow to pay out, SIP now finds itself growing but eclipsed by Skype's breathtaking J curve and flashy consumer acceptance.

Many SIP evangelists are working themselves up to condescending that the Skype-thing exists, is popular with consumers in a fad sorta way, and doesn't completely suck as a product. But Skype is so closed and proprietary and consumerish and otherwise icky that the future still lies with SIP.

And they may be right.

Nobody guarantees Skype's survival or ubiquity. But there are few serious rivals and Skype continues to raise the cost of entry.

As it stands, SIP hasn't evolved much, either in specification or in practice. Why? I've heard some blame it on big telcos dragging feet, hesitant to obsolete product families. Others blame SIP never being implemented the same way twice. Or a standards process and body slow to embrace bold changes. May disparities between software and telco cultures be at fault?

Assume Skype will keep evolving quickly, serving 300 million users before 2008. How soon will the SIP community respond to the competition? Will they act effectively? With a potent vision? With specs that everyone will embrace and stick to? We'll see. The recent P2P SIP meeting holds promise.

I had a comforting reality check over breakfast with family still in town post-wedding. Nobody there ever heard of Skype, VoIP, SIP or anything like it. The same look they gave when I mentioned blogs at another wedding in 1999, the Internet in 1993, DARPAnet in 1979. Tolerant, loving, bemused, and not the least interested.

Silly, I know.

Privacy and webcams.

With a paper bag I can hide a few of my physical markers. Age. Colors. Features. Gender.

This works until you open your mouth.

In a time of mass surveillance, beware. After all, today's webcam conversation is tomorrow's television newscast.

SkypeOut let's you call a regular phone number from your Skype software.

While caller ID isn't passing anything meaningful to a caller now, the call goes through a local phone system in the same region as the called number.

A SkypeOut termination point.

At a specific time.

To a specific phone number.

From a SkypeOut user account.

Billed for a specific length of time.

To a specific payment account.

Tied to a postal address.

Three phone calls from anyone with the power of subpoena to find a caller.

So, don't assume SkypeOut will keep you anonymous if you call a regular phone number to:

• Spill the name of a covert CIA employee to a reporter
• Ask for medical help for a sensitive condition
• Report your employer for a crime
• Make prank calls
• Talk to your lawyer
• Arrange for a secret meeting with your lover

Then again, SkypeOut isn't any more vulnerable to a court order than calling from your home, office, or mobile phones.

Imagine a vote button on Skype. It looks like this:

Programmers can do almost anything.

What would you want the button to do?

Go ahead, press it.

Imagine, and write about it.

Firecrackers echoed down the street, through my window this evening. An early welcome to America's Independence Day weekend. The sounds of war used to celebrate, and to remember.

We weren't the first, nor the last, to fight a war for national independence. We fought to rule ourselves, a freedom from monarchy. We get to vote, organize, and lobby - to have our voices heard, to hold those we elect responsible, to cast a strong light on their work and the personnel who operate our governments. It's an imperfect arrangement, but democracy is all the rage.

When telephone networks were first rolled out, they were private affairs run by companies.

We've added government to the equation since then. To assure universal access. To compel emergency services. To break up monopolies, increase competition, keep prices affordable for the many. To protect caller privacy, fend off telemarketers, and access for the deaf.

There are many governments with a say. Cities. Counties. States. Nations. International lands. Tribal lands. Each representing the interests of their constituencies.

These often conflict with the interests of a profit-minded company.

Like Skype.

A company with users on seven continents. Beholden only to the commercial interests of its investors and executives.

Leaving government out of it for the moment, how can Skype users assert their interests?

• How might we organize?
• Do we need our own virtual town hall?
• Do we even need representative democracy or can direct democracy work?
• Do corporations have a voice, or just people who may work for/with corporations?
• How about electing directors to Skype's board after they go public?
• Need we group our voices by geography? Language? Operating system? Dominant communication mode (text, voice, video, etc.)?
• What recurring issues warrant standing bodies?
  • Security? Privacy? System health?
  • Foreign relations? With other networks? With governments?
  • Taxation and funding?
  • Development direction?
  • Certification and testing of Skype-compatible systems?
  • Accessibility?
  • Universal Access?
  • Names and Identity disputes?
  • What else?

Chat with a friend. Talking points:

1. Will Skype become as important to you as your other phones?
2. What would you miss if Skype Technologies was taken over by bad people?
3. Who can you call if you want Skype to do something?

If you record your text or audio conversations, please let us know.
Suggestions for Skype Citizen Assignments are welcome; please leave your comments.

Worldchanging is one of my personal blog favorites. This year they again turned their blog over to their readers (something we SJ could learn from) and I found myself with the opportunity to contribute. So with the Independence Day weekend coming up in America I hit the keys to encourage "Voices for Freedom".

Read it on WorldChanging, all the content links are there.

VoIP as Revolution

For well over one hundred years, the phone system has slowly but surely brought us closer together through the simple act of hearing each other speak. The Internet, in turn, radically changed communications with media from email to blogs, giving everyone online a way to share ideas with global audiences. Today VoIP - voice over internet protocol - combines the personal contact of voice and the global connections of the Internet. Moreover, it opens up the possibility of new user behavior, offering up a new vision for future.

From Skype users reporting on the "intimate planet" to kids exchanging language lessons to extended families adopting "always-on" communication -- for them a presence aware global intercom is almost here. And that global intercom is still evolving, from the addition of video to massively multiplayer games to Skypecasting to collaborative art. The emerging global multi-modal communications networks come not from gated and priced hierarchies but from the ground up. That's a big change and one likely to stimulate new innovations, new economics, and empower individuals to make a better world. Like information wanting to be free, conversations when free shrink the world.

What can you do today? Embrace solutions that enable global connections and then make them. Reach out talk and build your global network. And pay close attention to the actions of those threatened by new technologies and connections.

While this personal freedom to connect is powerful, strong vested and regulatory interests may well want to take it away. Our freedom to converse with whomever and whenever we want over the Internet should be a basic freedom. Skype proves that in a broadband world we really can reach a point where always on creates abundant opportunities to connect. We must insure these new connections are not squashed by traditional vested interests, be they political or business. Recent policy and legal decisions on Port Blocking, the RIAA and Grokster case and 911 access are examples of the turmoil the new communications methods have triggered.

Freedom in the 21st century is defined by communications. Let's not shackle voices with constraints. Let us listen and encourage a world abundance.

Let's think "Voices for Freedom".

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Stuart Henshall: VOIP As Revolution

The marquee of the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, California says:

"We salute W. Mark Felt, an American patriot and a hero! Where is today's Deep Throat?"

Grassroots activists found FreeConferenceCall.com in the 2004 U.S. election. As long as everyone pays for their own long distance call, it's free of service charges. They're now inviting Skypers to use the service. Their pitch: use SkypeOut to call in and cut your long distance charges to SkypeOut's $1.20 an hour.

Why not conference using Skype alone? Two reasons: scale and access. This service supports up to 96 callers at a time. It also supports Skypeless callers.

What capabilities would make a difference?

• The SkypeAPI makes it possible to program an app that lets me invite buddies to a non-Skype conference.
  
• FreeConferenceCall should be able to take Skype phone calls directly into a conference.
  
• Scale text chat to hundreds. When more than four people actively participate in a chat, readers can't keep up. The diversity of opinion within the flow makes it hard to follow threads. So design must address the cognitive challenges: information overload; thread clustering, navigation, contribution; peripheral vision and alerting; leveraging social and procedural contexts; turn taking, voting, and moderation.
  
• Augment with white boarding and desktop sharing. These features let parties to a call show presentations or demonstrate real-time screen captures. Some implementations even permit multiple users to share the same app. My dream would be a collaborative realtime wiki for a call, along the lines of SubEthaEdit