Love, a documentary production company, is filming Skype users. Share a story of how Skype affects your life by leaving a comment to this post or Skyping me and I'll refer you to the producer.

What is YapperNut's next VoIP product? Enter your guess in... The Y Zone and win a YapperProductToBeNamed25December.

Ray Chen says the winners are those who come closest to the real product. My guesses: The YapperGasm: a Skype compatible telesex vibrator (ringtones, baby), Elephone: rubber elephant phone headset, and The YapperNut Webcam Cozy Line: stylish privacy covers for your cams. Guess away.

These are the guys who brought you the exceptionally stylish YapperBox home phone adapter, and the increasingly smart Amy software. Amy now can route incoming calls based on how directly the caller knows you. Small manufacturers like this are making Skype easier to understand for everyone.

by Lee Dryburgh.

I took some pictures of the Skype marketing team in action near Torrington Place, London.

One of their flyers reads "Death to the don't-make -me-open-it phone bill", "...you can say goodbye to phone bills that would scare a small island nation".

Another piece of marketing literature they were handing out included marketing for the 6000 UK WiFi hotspots from The Cloud. This was interesting for me because it was what I would term co-branded. For those interested, a photo of the offer is here.

I can not help but wonder if Skype somehow plan to tackle Google in the access market by partnering up with ever more WiFi providers. Such a competition between two huge providers of free telephony combined with WiFi access could make very interesting play.

Here are their future dates (two days in each location) that the Skype marketing team will be visiting:

• Hertfordshire 17th Nov
• UCE Birmingham 21st Nov
• Derby 23rd Nov
• Nottingham Trent 25th Nov
• Leeds Metropolitan 29th Nov

• Manchester Metropolitan 1st Dec
• Liverpool John Moores 5th Dec
• Liverpool 7th Dec
• Central Lancashire 7th Dec
• Northumbria Newcastle 13th Dec
• Newcastle Upon Tyne 15th Dec

Somehow seeing "Skype people" on the streets was somehow good and somehow something of a concern. On one hand it was amazing to watch demographic sectors (primarily old ladies) that I believe would not even try Skype if you informed them taking the free packages away with a degree of excitement at the prospect of free calls.

But on the other hand it made Skype feel somehow like a cheap call provider such as OneTel. I just hope that instead it is being used to spread the word, get people on board using what they understand (simple telephone calls) and at the same time kick in more exciting services and business propositions to the end user.

If a picture can speak a thousand words, take a look at the picture of the phone booth outside the building that housed the Skype marketing lot. In all the years I have watched the booths, I have only saw one person use the Internet booth. I guess it was yet another telco mistake to roll such booths out across the UK.

Lee Dryburgh is a hands-on telco engineer who also dreams about the future of telephony as part of a doctorate at the University College London. He looks for others' thoughts on the future of telephony at MyDoctorate.com.

Guest post by Lee Dryburgh, University College London.

A couple of weeks ago I slumped into my office chair with fairly depressed thoughts in relation to telecoms. I had been startled as a kid by wide area communications, in particular telephony. With a cheap handset I could transcend space seemingly to anywhere on Earth by dialling a digit string. It was with no surprise that upon university graduation (computer science) I began working in telecoms (writing SS7/C7 protocol decodes). Since then I have been fairly well remunerated by every major telecoms vendor (with the exception of Ericsson) and by a string of operators, both cellular and fixed line around the world for my technical services. Not only has the income been good but I have had the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of technology for the best part of my work life. It was with this in mind that I sat depressed with the thoughts of telephony becoming a freebie application like email; the resulting drop in operators and their respective vendors, the subsequent drop in demand for people like me and the lustre drop surrounding telephony. I had only just began to wonder if there was some hope in terms of maintaining a good financial lifestyle in telecoms and whether something would keep up the lustre when my Skype client began to ring.

I answered and it was an eight year old kid I did not know. He talked at me about Skype, Teamspeak, chipping Sony PS2s, P2P sharing for obtaining games and so on. I waited for social graces such as informing me who he was and why he was calling me as I was not even in Skype-Me mode. This did not come. So I asked if his father maybe wanted me and he seemed confused at my question. He got further confused by my questioning to obtain his motive for calling me. I eventually got his message though – he was calling because he can and this is now normal.

Fast forward to today. I was sitting in a lecture at the University as part of the requirement for my engineering doctorate in telecoms. The lecture was meant to be on telecommunications and Internet convergence (yawn, this is nearly 2006 not 1999/2000). After repeated ramblings on Class A-C Internet addresses, dial-up Internet discussions using PPP in Windows 95/98, the lecturer moved onto access networks. He had just finished saying that operators would continue to exist since somebody must pay for the infrastructure, in particular the access part when my RSS reader pulled a headline from a few days back claiming Google would be offering free WiFi access in a second city.

Closer to lunch he stated that he did believe that Skype would not be a success because if it pinched operators they would simply block it. This is such nonsense (in free, democratic countries) that it is not even worth my time spitting out chars to disprove. As we came out of class and left the building, there were street teams handing out free Skype handouts – headphones, CD and 30 minutes of breakout calling (Skype-to-PSTN). On returning after lunch I heard a student bring it up with him and I heard some kind of half-hearted mumble that nothing is free. Of course I do not disagree, I just happen to think that the lecturer's position as CTO of a small operator may not pay for his retirement. Operators (particularly outside of the US) are failing to align themselves with the dramatically changing landscape (beyond good apps I know the operators will not deliver, it is a question of ecosystems and dynamically slicing money out of transaction chains).

In the afternoon he stated he thought 3G may win out against WiMax and touted IMS but could not list any applications for it. IMS is pushed as the intelligence (preceding it is IN, which was a telco failure) for the new IP converged multi-service network. It was only yesterday he was rambling about ISDN and then ATM (B-ISDN), failed operator lead converged multi-service networks. This got me depressed again, but maybe another omen will appear tomorrow! Lets see.

Lee Dryburgh is a graduate student at University College London and blogs his adventures in telecommunications technology at MyDoctorate.com.

Excellent service deserves some praise. I needed a new transformer for our low-voltage kitchen light, because the old one was cutting out. Big bad vibes to manufacturer Brilliant whose customer service was worse than useless. Our plumber (another story - leaky shower, insurance claim, big hassle) recommended Edmundson Electrical for getting a part. They were superb — the guy helped me find the right part, called me back after checking with a colleague, and the price was good too. I’m pleased to have done business with them.

But go take a look at their web site. Now, I’ve upgraded my Flash player this evening because of a security alert. But when I went to view their site in the old version of Flash using Firefox, it didn’t work at all. Usual moral of story, don’t use Flash unless it adds value. I had to load it in another browser, and even then because of the Flash I couldn’t just cut’n’paste their phone number into Skype to check their opening times (not on the web site - duh!) and whether the part was in stock. (There’s a Flash-free version, too — hope your auto-detection works better than it did for me.)

With the release of the Skype browser toolbars, now is a VERY good time for merchants to go and take a look at their web sites and re-think their customer contact strategy. These toolbars are going to change how people use telephony.

Firstly, get the mechanics right. Will the call go through to the intended number? If you’ve not expressed it in international format, and it’s not clearly a North American number, you may have a problem. Particularly if the domain doesn’t give a clue as to the country (e.g. .com), or gives the wrong clue (e.g. localised domain names for countries like Ireland, but a pan-European call centre in the UK.)

Next, make sure it’s a number that’s callable internationally, if that’s your intention; or exclude international calls, as need be. Some numbering ranges are deliberately restricted to international callers, or have strange cost structures (e.g. 0870 numbers in the UK).

It’s also a good time to re-think whether you want to have an 800-style number. There’s a bigger cost, for sure, but even the folk with the basic version of Skype can call these without subscribing to SkypeOut. How much business can you afford to lose?

You also need to re-think your contact strategy. The number on your web site may start to drive a lot more of your calls. Do you just want to have a single mnemonic 800-type number (e.g. 1-800-AIRWAYS is British Airways), and force people to navigate an IVR? Or break it down into IVR-bypassing numbers? Do all numbers and internal destinations deserve promotion on your web site? Which ones drive revenue and customer satisfaction? Which ones are just cost?

Telcos are used to using their network distribution muscle to control the application services. Now the boot is on the other foot; the money isn’t from the phone call, but from the introduction. Companies like Google, Skype and Microsoft out-distribute the telcos easily here. The real fight is on who gets to display and re-intermediate these inbound call channels. By the time the call starts, the economic activity is all over! Soon these new entrants will start to upgrade the experience to “Voice 2.0” standards, with better call quality, multimodality, identity etc. built in (“bright purple minutes”, Jeff!). Would you rather place a PSTN call and have to dictate your details, or a Google Talk call which makes the experience simple and privacy-enhanced?

Regardless, the job of being a telco manager at your everyday corporation is about to become a lot more interesting and high profile. No longer do you have a single “phone system” to worry about, but rather a whole suite of possible voice-enhanced and real-time customer interaction channels. I recommend having lunch with your e-commerce team in the next few weeks. You’ve got work to do.

via Telepocalypse

Brightpoint North America is hiring a program manager in the wake of their deal to distribute Skype-related products. details...

Skype Program Manager

Job Description:

This position will be responsible for the development and implementation of the Skype product portfolio and product/Sales/Marketing strategy throughout Brightpoint North America. This includes:

• defining the specific product offering;
• clearly identifying target market segments and product positioning;
• coordinating appropriate product merchandising;
• overseeing integration of vendor products into BPNA portfolio;
• creating innovative new offerings for existing and identifying new channels;
• attending and driving vendor meetings;
• gathering current product documentation, specifications and images for internal and external BPNA communication;
• regularly communicating with equipment manufacturers and service providers to identify and address changes and shifts in efforts/product offerings;
• developing forecasts and interfacing with purchasing department;
• preparing sales tools and product presentations;
• handling day to day communications with the sales channels and partners and acting as the regional contact for BP Skype global team members.

Required Experience:

The ideal candidate has a successful track record in product and program management/development for direct and indirect sales channels in the wireless industry or related consumer products; will understand potential VoIP, Enterprise and Content product and service offerings that can be sold to various existing and emerging sales channels. This would include retail outlets like Internet cafes, Airport Vendors, Coffee Shops, Local CE retailers, Truck Stops, Colleges and Universities, appropriate music, video retail.

- 5+ years of experience of product/program management, preferably with WLAN and/or VoIP domain knowledge
- 3+ years of experience with direct and indirect sales channel efforts in the wireless industry and knowledge of the independent retail/national retail space
- May have existing contacts within the wireless industry including manufacturers, wireless carriers or retailers of sales organizations of WLAN and VoIP products and Services
- Entrepreneurial spirit combined with the core Brightpoint values of Integrity, Accomplishment, Quality, Respect, Learning and Community Involvement
- Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills
- A willingness to travel as necessary to meet the job needs (50%+)

Skype recently announced a new set of website buttons. This is the first real use of their expanded range of Skype tags. This allows you to integrate calls for text, voice, add a contact, file sharing, and voice messaging just by clicking on a website. It's convenient and provides lots of potential to create new communication solutions.

The latest transparent drop down is really rather neat. It provides all the different ways to contact me. It's quite an advancement. Follow the link to get yours.

Skype buttons can be used on your website, blog or even in your email signature to let other people contact you easily. Share Skype

Then I began thinking about it. What's different here? I took a closer look at comparing the old and new buttons.

This is an orginal early Skype call button:

The new buttons:

First time round I almost missed it. No it's really true. Skype has dropped "Skype" from all its buttons. Maybe they think the branding of the buttons is now so strong everyone gets it? Maybe they did some research and many people seeing these buttons on websites failed to understand their meaning? Perhaps I should be asking them first why they dropped "SkypeMe"?

I thought about this and my response is very much from the heart as a user. Asking questions now would ignore my judgement and reduce the impact of just blogging it. I can sum it up in one sentence. I don't want you to Call me I want you to Skype me.

Here's my logic: Skyping is a multi-dimensional communication tool. I want a Skype experience. That includes chat and voice messages and buddylists etc. I don't want you to call me. I'm not thinking "shooting the breeze" on a telephone. I was almost the first in the world to put a SkypeMe callto tag on a blog. I wore it as a revolutionary badge of honor. It was a statement and an invitation. It became part of our vocabulary - marketers and brand managers will know how utterly powerful that can be, when their brand enters consumer parlance.

In some countries "call me" is the thing you say when running down a hall when you don't have time to stop or be polite. It's not a call to action. By contrast Skype was defining behavior and providing a sense of access and urgency. You are here, you are on my site, here is my invitation. Add presence and the availablity info increases exponentially. From the Skype perspective, you had a unique brand property in Skypeme.

I thought I'd check with a couple of my buddies. Dina's comment summed it up for me.

"hmmm some of the new buttons are pretty nice to use with friends. Am not sure i would change the old SkypeMe button though for clients in an email signature .... it just seemed more business-like. Why have they removed 'Skype' from the call me tag? I kind of liked it .. it made me feel more on-the-edge, like i was using something special. I know it made many of my clients inquire about what Skype is ... and some even adopted it. Call me as a button is confusing too ... i already have my landline and mobile number in my email signature ... and i think i may confuse my clients with this additional Call Me button."

There are some schools of marketing that believe you only want the consumers saying the shortened name or using it as a verb. Did Xerox ever talk about anything other than copying? How did Miller Genuine Draft become MGD etc.? Here Skype has become a verb and we understand SkypeIn and SkypeOut and we now have a callto tag that says "Call Me". Is it just me or has it all gone flat? I can't see the hype or the excitement in Call me. And effectively, you are asking me to change my vocabulary again, having thus far carved a unique position in my mind. Competitors can come up with similar Call Me buttons - none could have used Skype Me. What then is your unique badge?

To make matters worse I watched an SBC commercial on television tonight. Guess what the tagline is? I don't have it perfect... the thrust was SBC "Beyond the Call". When I see it again or remember I will insert it.

I looked some more at the branding and the tags. They are all bigger than the smallest before. The drop down conceptually is really rather cool. Still how does it fit in with my email signature? Is it business like enough? The speech bubble may be alright for Skype staffers but really you must be kidding if you think I'm going to add it to my signature. So overall the selection is way down. Not as many colors and limted shapes. Which brings up two more issues.

Look at the drop down Call Me tag again. (Leave a VM if you want to test it). Now why did Skype fail to incorporate a download Skype link and tie it into the Skype Affiliate program at the same time. (BTW I think if you don't have Skype installed it automatically takes you to a download Skype page although I haven't confirmed this I know it is possible.)

Then think some more. This drop down tag is a perfect way to send a message to contact a company. Thus why isn't there a "SkypeUs" option. That suggests you are getting the generic number for the business. With the latest advances in Skype 1.4 for Windows with call forwarding there are many new ways to encourage Skype onto the business site. For business I could provide a whole set of encouraging options. Some others may want to put the "Call Us on Skype" as the button. Or "Call us Free on Skype". Both these last two promote a key benefit. It's free. The cost of developing them isn't very much. In the end downloads will tell which ones people want.

Thus we have some real progress in the implementation of Skype tags. The current group needs a quick expansion.

There are also options that could significantly enhance these tags. For example the tags could provide my picture, or a company logo. Whatever is put in the Skype profile. I'd also look more to the "buddylist" development. When or if we get headless clients. It could be those buddylists that we are simply scrolling though on a site to connect. Online by department etc.

So there you have it. A strong response. I'm not that interested in adopting these tags although I will use and incorporate the drop down tag. My strong response is a gut level one. I would have loved to debate it with whoever developed it. If I had I would have had more context to write this blog post around. As it is, there isn't a story that satisfies me this was the right move or well done. Questions I could be still waiting for answers on:

• Why do you want to adopt "Call me" rather than SkypeMe?
• What assortment should we have? How many variations? Where will it be used? By whom etc.
• Have you asked other users?
• How are you planning to promote the new tags?

It's quite possible I'm all wrong. Still I'm a Skyper for one and I still want a "SkypeMe" button. Is that too much to ask?