Is Skype "social media"? My belief is YES! What's more I believe VoIP and Video are about to reframe the whole social media world. Still the other world isn't there yet. They are still struggling to catch up with blogs and how to make money and spread the message in a world where traditional economics are being overturned. I figure if you are reading Skype Journal then you already know something about blogs and Skyping. Chances are you have seen a social networking service or two. Still the social side is about behavior.

This time next week I will be at Blogon. I'm going to see some of those big company people. How one spreads the word is an interesting topic. For my part, I'll be interested to know what advice they promote to companies to retain a supportive blogger community.

Learn how to use social media to create more meaningful conversations with your customers..... hear how major companies such as AOL, Chrysler, ESPN, McDonald's, SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Sprint, Sun Microsystems, Unilever and Yahoo! are using social media for business advantage.

Social media is changing the way companies interact with customers and employees. The challenge is how to keep abreast of developments: What applications are emerging? Which companies are breaking new ground? BlogOn 2005 - The Business of Social Media

Let me know if you are going to be there. I'll also be in New York the following week.

Both the Jewish New Year and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan started today. No coincidence. Both religions use a lunar calendar. Hundreds of millions of people use them when you include the Chinese calendar, Hebrew calendar, Hindu calendar, and Islamic calendar.

Lunar calendar support will become more relevant as Skype continues to:

• integrate with Outlook and other calendars;
• offer alerts, reminders, and scheduled calls;
• help buddies negotiate available times for conference calls; and
• support settings that change Skype's behavior based on the day, date, and time.

Skype's massive localization is a strategic advantage. Lunar alendaring and scheduling will build on that.

We publish the Skype Journal Guide to Skype's Plug-In Architecture. One of the exercises is building a voice mail system using the Skype API, in about an hour. If you're handy that way, check out Tom's Networking's How To: Asterisk Answering Machine. Nicely done.

I'm lusting for a midget-sized usb speaker-phone. The minivox 100 comes close, especially at a US$40 price point. But I want topside buttons for answering Skype (and all my other software that "rings"), a volume control, and a mute button. Heaven would be being able to plug my USB headphones into it and a tri-mode rocker button that would let me swtich between speakerhpone, headphones, and both at the same time.

One of the cool things at VON: an Asterisk softswitch server and a WiFi access point mounted on a bicycle. Ridden through small towns in Bolivia, sprinkling VoIPy dust as they go.

eBay buying Skype continue to ripple through the mediasphere.

• Steven Levy for Newsweek. eBay's Bet: The Skype's the Limit. "Right now, VoIP is a mystery to the mainstream (a recent Harris poll found that only 13 percent of the public knew what it was; 10 percent thought it was the name of a vodka)"
• Bambi Francisco of MarketWatch: The things Google makes you do : We're being forced to evolve at warp speed. "eBay's got its verb."
• CNET : VoIP wants to cut the computer cord. "Before softphones can really become widely deployed, the technology will have to be accessible to more devices than just a laptop." Amen, sisters.

Loving TechCrunch, blogging each week of Web 2.0 . It leads to the Web 2.0 Meme Map.

Coming events:

• Sep. 27, United eBay Buyer Meetup Day.
  
• Sep. 27-28, Connect & Collaborate: Social Networking & Collaboration Inside the Enterprise, New York. The worklplace is rife with goals that catalyze action and group formation. Drop Skype into the mix of blogs, wikis, and other collab tools.

  
  

• Oct. 5-7, Web 2.0, San Francisco. See you there.
  
• Oct. 5, Web 1.0 Summit, San Francisco. Drink you there.
  
• Oct. 6, Recovery 2.0, San Francisco. "The web performed amazing work during the tsunami and Katrina disasters... but the web can do better. So on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 6pm PT at Web 2.0, we're holding an open organizing meeting to begin the discussion about what developers, relief organizations, and media need to better cooperate and respond to future disasters, including goals, standards, and communication. This is also an opportunity for those in the area who are working on such projects or want to help can meet."

  
  

• Oct. 10-13, User Interface 10 Conference, Boston. What would Skype's client look like if designed by Tony Soprano?
  
• Oct. 11, Around the Blog, Paris.
  
• Oct. 13, Social Networking 2.0, Palo Alto.
  
• Oct. 13, eBay Seller Meetups.

  
  

• Oct. 17-20, MILCOM 2005 - Military Communication Conference, New Jersey. Clearance required.
  
• Oct. 17-20, EuroOSCON 2005, Amsterdam.
  
• Oct. 18-19, VoIP Convention, Paris.
  
• Oct. 19-22, Pop!Tech 2005, Camden, Maine.

  
  

• Oct. 24-25, Collaborative Communications Summit, San Francisco.
  
• Oct. 24-Oct. 27, VoIP 2.0, the Internet Telephony conference, Los Angeles. Niklas speaking virtually.
  
• Oct. 26-27, Internet Identity Workshop, Berkeley, California. How do you merge PayPal, eBay and Skype IDs with each other and all the other IDs on the net?
  

Skype's Future with eBay
Yi-Tan Weekly Tech Call #52
Monday, September 26, 2005

Skype's been bought by -- eBay? It surprised us, too, but there may be some method in this madness, says our guest host Stuart Henshall, creator of the Skype Journal and perennial VoIP and presence expert. With Stuart, we'll ponder the eBay -PayPal-Skype platform, addressing questions such as:

* How should we value Skype? What is its long-term advantage?
* How might Skype be "better than free"?
* What does the eBay platform promise? What changes might it cause across the industry?

Stuart recommends listening to some webcasts on eBay's site, especially the London Lunch.

As always, an IRC Chat will be available during the call, here. [irc://irc.freenode.net/yitan]

Date: Monday, September 26, 2005
Time: 10:30 PDT, 1:30 EDT
Primary Dial-in Number: 1-800-615-2900 (Toll Free in USA and Canada)
1-661-705-2005 (for callers outside the USA and Canada)
Participant Access Code: 778778

Yi-Tan Weekly Tech Calls.

Skype Journal begged Skype to share their near term product roadmap with independent developers. Recently they've started to do just that, in private forums for their beta developers, at meetings of their developers' advisory board, and last night at their "Skype Night" for developers meeting at VON Boston. Normal caveats: everything is subject to change, we don't know what the new feature names really mean, and this all comes out for Windows first.

Here is the chart as projected for the audience.

Details from that slide.

The current release is 1.3, so 1.4, now in beta, is coming up in September. It will include better people search, help, expressive content (ring tones and the like) and basic call forwarding. UI and usability improvements: Improved GSW (my neighborhood emergency room uses this term for gunshot wounds), Improved Search, Improved Import Contact Wizard, Web Based Visual Setup Guides, Basic Dynamic Content (?), Login-by-Alias (?)

1.5 adds video (?), client-side web presence, and partner bulids (?) in October.

1.6 is the Novemer 2005 "Community Release." New: Simple Talk (client-side) and talk directories, social networking (?), dynamic content (http), and removing bloat from the client's software libraries.

Release 1.7 will feature "Talks and PIM" in December-January. New features: advanced talks on the client side, editable profiles and enhanced video. UI and usability: UI 2.0 (phase 1) and dynamic content p2p (?). On the web: tools for webmasters and blogs.

Unscheduled items: PTT, user rewards program, offline IM, shared groups, video mail, expressive content (phase 2), and phase 3 importers .

Alec Saunders has done a bang up job of covering a bunch of VON sessions; nearly like being here (and I am).

Cynthia on the IP Democracy Forum posts: VoIP: Too Soon to Say "Stop the Madness," But.....

IP Drum is promoting its Mobile Skype Cable. You can make your own, but why bother?

AOL's TotalTalk launches, first comments by Tom Keating. PingTel Inside. Russell Shaw says "What happens next: a VoIP war between the: IM's turned VoIPs and router-modem VoIP services such as Vonage, CallVantage, etc. Branding, pricing, QoS and convenience will be key."

Richard Stastny has been taking snapshots and writing up his experience here. "The highlight of the session was of course the statement from John Klensin: "ENUM is dead, the window is closed". The most interesting with this statement was to watch Richard Shockey's face sitting to the right side of John ;-)"

Skibare is funny as anything, posting from VON on voipnuke.

I agree with Shaw: "Also, I gotta tell you, among this crowd there's a good bit of snobbiness toward Skype. Jealousy is part of it, sure, but so much of the VoIP world that shows up at this show is enterprise-solutions centric. Skype is seen by them as a consumer brand, irrelevant to their business models and just not worth the mental bandwidth thinking about. Can you spell.. L-I-N-E-A-R? Guess math, programming and network geniuses are that way."

I'm posting photos to the flickr von tag.

1. Book face time with us, skype Patti now; there are just a few slots open on Wednesday.

2. Pick a dive and feed me Saturday night. I'll buy. Skype me before Friday night, leave a comment, or call me at +1-510-206-1138. UPDATE: Mmmm. Greek food in Cambridge.

3. Meet us with at least one Skype staffer (tbd), at VON Skype Night, Tuesday. "Skype Night: Skype is growing its [blah blah blah]. As such, they are interested in talking about [blah blah] with partners and developers. Come and meet the Skype team on Tuesday, September 20th at 6:30PM in room 253A." We'll be there too.

4. Then we'll move over to the Media Pirates Dinner at Flemings' Steak House, 217 Stuart Street. UPDATE: May be full as of Monday morning.

Host: Andy Abramson

Location: Flemings' Steak House, 217 Stuart Street, Boston, MA (map)

When: Tuesday, September 20, 8:00pm

Come to the Media Pirates Dinner. And in style of what we as Bloggers vs. the traditional media at VON, we're the Pirates... the upstarts, the ones who change the way things are done. Peglegs and parrots optional.

Even if you have confirmed in the past your participation at the second annual blogger dinner @ VON, please take a moment and reply your intent here.

See you in Boston!

(pssssst. If you need an invite, just say the Skype Journal people sent you. We may commandeer the party until it's sailing under the Skype and Crossbones. Aarrgh!)

UPDATE: Sunday. Andy says we've maxed out the main table. While arrangements are underweigh to find more space, the dinner may be maxed out.

UPDATE: Monday. Andy turned off the evite web page this morning; no more room at the table (someone must walk the plank before anyone else can come aboard). So make your own reservations for your own table before you swing by Andy's. +1-617-292-0808 or online reservations.

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 have my tickets for VON Boston. Skype Journal will have three of our tribe there. Stuart Henshall (accumulating Tallinn-California-Tallinn-Boston jet lag), Martin Geddes (winding up his North American tour), and myself. Tuesday we're going to most of the keynotes, including Skype's CEO, live, but not in person. There's a blogger dinner Tuesday night. Wednesday is our meet and greet day; we're blocking in 19 minutes here and there to visit with our favorite people. Are you one of our favorite people? One of our rabid fans and stalkers? Would you like to tell us about your Skype strategy? Or asks us for all kinds of inside secrets? Just Skype Patti, our calendar maven, for a time that'll work. We're ducking into the exhibitor lunch on Wednesday so you may see us there or as we actually catch up with people and check out the exhibition on Thursday morning. Flying home Thursday night.

I just got off of a call with Angelo (awake for 90 hours in Bahrain), Dina Mehta (from Mumbai and of Skype Journal), and Anna Lisa (Amsterdam) about setting up the KatrinaHelp Team's phone service. They are working with the Saturn ham radio operators to queue and relay calls for help from around Tulane. So they're setting up a local SkypeIn number and buying some SkypeOut time, about 20 euro for now. The volunteers, many of whom are alumni of Tsunami relief efforts, will follow the sun, handing off the account as they change shifts.

Two unresolved problems so far.

SMS. They need to receive and send SMS. Text will often get through to a mobile phone where voice calls fail. And these are life and death calls for help. The volume is low, fifty to a few hundred messages a day for the next few weeks. If you can help, Skype me (evanwolf) or Skype KatrinaHelp.

Payment. The other problem is that Skype still binds each account to just one payment option, typically a credit card. So the same person who pays for this account now is responsible for topping up the account for the life of the project. This could end up being a lot of money for one person. Right now we're assuming sponsors could reimburse our volunteer, but it would be better if others could buy SkypeOut minutes and transfer them to KatrinaHelp.

This is just one project. Grassroots. Independent. More to come.

UPDATE: See the KatrinaHelp home page if you want to join in.

UPDATE: Thanks to Jaanus Kaase, the official Share Skype blogger, for SkypeOut vouchers. Nice job, Jaanus. Blog on.

UPDATE: The volunteers:

• updated their Skype installs to the latest non-beta version,
• completed their purchase of SkypeIn and SkypeOut,
• set HotKeys so they can answer calls quickly,
• recorded voice mail messages,
• worked out that they couldn't have two people logged in with the same Skype name at the same time, and used SkypeOut to call the Tulane number. It worked!

UPDATE: Jaanus Kaase: "We have eased the payment limits on KatrinaHelp account so you should have no issues making further payments."

UPDATE: Connectotel's Marcus Williamson is setting up a Skype-to-SMS bridge for KatrinaHelp.

Thanks to all who came to Palo Alto to celebrate Skype's second birthday with us. Great people, good food, and a lovely time.

Where will Skype be a year from now?

Will there be a liquidity event by this time next year?

How will the management roster change?

Who else will join the fray?

How many people will be calling with video?

Which customer segments will Skype dominate or abandon?

How many hardware products focusing on Skype will exhibit at CES?

Last Tuesday we were all waiting for Google Talk. By Wednesday we had Google Talk, MSN Messenger's 7.5 with video and quality talk, Skype opening up SkypeNet and SkypeWeb.

Something's breaking through. "Something wonderful."

Let's talk about it over spicy noodles at Jing Jing. Come one, come all. Bring friends and spread the word.

Join the bloggers of Skype Journal: Phil Wolff, Stuart Henshall, and Bill Campbell in town from Canada. Bring $25 and we'll eat family style. See you Tuesday at 7 in Palo Alto.

Please RSVP on Evite or leave a comment so we have a headcount.

Details later. Chinese noodles involved.

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.

August 2-4, 2005 - VoIP Developers Conference - at South San Francisco Conference Center starts today in San Francisco. Let us Skype phreaks convene Wednesday, 7pm, in the lobby. My mobile is +15102061138. If you're attending and have South San Francisco dining suggestions, please leave a comment on this blog post or a Skype chat (evanwolf).

I'll be in Chicago this weekend and next week. Skype me or leave a comment and maybe we can grab a bite and a beer, and talk shop. Can anyone point me to an authentic Italian Beef sandwhich place?

Padre Abramson may take up VoIP missionary work after refereeing a Boston Blog Party during VonFall. I won't be wearing red soxs. Let us know if you are going to Von Fall. Thanks.

While the list is not yet complete, the line up reads like the "Dream Team," "Murders Row" and an All Star line up in Baseball, where everyone is Ted Williams at the plate when it comes to knocking the news out of the park as well as hitting for average in the blogosphere. VoIP Watch

See David Weinberger, blogger and Internet philosopher.



See David interview Phil Wolff for C|net TV.



See Phil talk.



See Phil talk about Skype, Skype and political activism, Skype and emergent social networks, Skype and the vicious backlash by incumbents.



Streamed Quicktime. About three minutes. (I can't believe I sound like that)

Streaming video of Stuart Henshall's talk before the London Ecademy (Windows Media Player) about presence, networks, and more. via cherryleaf's blog.

Living the Skype Life

engadget: Use DittyBot and Skype to access your iTunes collection from any cellphone (Mac). It works, but Om says you can buy an iPod for the same price as the added mobile minutes. DittyBot (cute name, cuter character) is another example of the willingness of customers to make their own features.

Russell Shaw explains 15 common Skype error messages.

For your inner Quant

The latest Skype stats:

• Total Skype Downloads: 122,320,159
• Users Online Now: 3,014,635
• Total Minutes Served: 9,947,864,820 (should roll over)

Researcher Sandvine says Skype users rule North America.

• Skype users account for 35.8 percent of individual callers on North American networks.
• Skype calls account for 46.2 percent of minutes used.

also...

• Cape shows Skype now synonymous with voip, at least in the blogosphere. Poor Vonage.
• Skype is filling the void left by broken email.
• Xandros is adding German and French desktop Linux versions (with Skype inside). Skype's also shipping with the English and Spanish versions. When Skype is bundled with the operating system...

vSkype multiuser video chat free Beta release shipping now. See Bill Campbell's product review and exclusive interviews.

IPdrum promises a bridge between net and mobile phones later this summer. "Patent-pending technology to connect traditional mobile systems with Skype." Wholesale service or retail? via Engadget.

Skype voicemail came out of beta. New feature: Voicemail customers can leave voicemail for any Skypers.

Security? Om Malik re-voices concern about Skype crossing firewalls.

Skypes To The Editor: Online publication MSmobiles.com uses Skype for reader feedback. Leave a voicemail with your comments.

What's Your Skype Strategy? Blast from three months ago.

Coming this week:

• Supernova 2005 Conference. San Francisco. Stuart Henshall and I will see you there.
• Philadelphia Metro Telecommunications Enthusiasts Group Meetup. First meeting.
• CPSN'05 - The 2005 International Conference on Computers for People with Special Needs. Las Vegas.
• Internet Law 2005. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Gnomedex 5.0. Seattle.