Please say hello to Richard Zhao Liang (赵粮). Richard publishes the blog Telecom, Security and P2P.

Richard will join us on Skype Journal from time to time to give you special up dates on Skype news and events from Beijing.

Richard earned a PhD degree from Peking University (1997), majoring in fiber-optic communications. He has over 8 years of professional experience on telecommunications and security with certificates of CISSP, ITIL, BS7799. He is the Principal Consultant in China for Computer Associates.

Thanks Richard for joining us and sharing your views.

I hope you will tell Richard what questions you have about Skype in China.

See his first Skype Journal post, Skype’s Road to China

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.

There are great lessons to be learned from a quick study of "Hyping Skype". Over two years, Skype went from releasing a beta product to a successful billion dollar sale. I've put together two quick charts on a rough timeline to share Skype PR releases and some of the lessons learned and gathered along the way. It's a much bigger story than just a couple of PPT's.

I've lived through these lessons and been part of them in many ways. I blogged Skype from the beginning. Over the next few days I plan on sharing a few of the lessons. In the end, the Skype community has been pivotal in determining Skype's direction and creating a momentum far beyond it's size. We are at a very clear inflection point for Skype. Will the momentum continue? Will the elements that made them so successful in Year One and Year Two translate effectively to an eBay managed world?

Year One.

Year Two.

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 plus eBay equals conversational markets

By Stuart Henshall
Published: September 21 2005 03:00 | Last updated: September 21 2005 03:00

From Stuart Henshall of skypejournal.com.

What's the developer's view of the Skype/eBay deal? What are the new opportunities? From a telecommunications industry perspective is there less to fear or more?

Let me lay out the prize that Skype developers are playing for and put even more fear into telecoms suppliers.

Here's the situation. First, eBay has 500,000 sellers, most of which don't know or understand Skype. However, they are entrepreneurial, quick to copy best practices, and used to working with new forms of software. They are motivated by money.

Secondly, eBay has clarified Skype's strategy. There is no longer a question of "when will there be an enterprise version?"

Skype had been claiming to be a consumer play. Now it is clear it is a platform play, part of a multi-modal commerce engine and no longer has to remain cautious about the enterprise. It only has to unleash its developers and open up access.

And the start for developers is "call transfer". The functionality is almost embedded in Skype.

In the 1.4 beta "call forwarding" is available. However, call forwardingis an automated redirection and the inbound caller only knows the call is forwarded.

With call transfer, by contrast, the call can be answered and redirected to either another Skype account (free) or to a landline (at the transferer's cost).

On transfers, inbound callers will receive identity information on the person they are talking to. Call transfer enables interactive voice-response applications, effectively offering call centre functionality.

And because Skype call transfer functionality can bypass traditional private branch exchange networks, small companies can acquire enterprise-style communications systems for a pittance.

And imagine the ease with which the seller can direct details and similarly automate information content, such as allowing potential buyers to watch a video of the product free of charge via Skype.

Similarly, calls coming into an auction will have caller ID of potential buyers, feedback of buyers, and can concurrently provide additional information back, such as details of other auctions.

This isn't even a full list of benefits of the deal. There is the potential here to link Skype and eBay user profiles to databases on other services and create new communities and communication tools. But these will come later.

But for now, by combining their strategic direction Skype and eBay have created a world in which Skype enables a much broader platform. Thus connected to different application platform interfaces and also living within both PayPal - the company's online payment facility - and eBay, we see a Skype emerging which will enable developers to give free rein to their imagination and build a range tools that can be used, as long as they are certified.

Developers might design their own softphones, enterprise solutions, or even "pay to call you" channels - a Skype equivalent of premium telephone services.

Skype's goal of making communications free is two steps closer, by creating a business environment around the technology and then enabling people to sell access.

The opportunity for software-only developers may well turn out to be in designing the tools to manage that access.

But alongside the opportunity apparent in the takeover of creating a market around conversations, there are also questions.

Will Skype or eBay want to carry out much of this development themselves?

Will eBay block potential in the adult market - an area where a great many developers see potential?

What percentage will they want for facilitating the new market? There are very many unknowns at present.

To conclude: Skype/eBay/PayPal find themselves developing a platforming strategy for conversational markets.

At first, this will create new experiences and encourage new developer solutions at the intersection of the three businesses.

How open the enlarged business is to the innovation in the developer community could well determine its success.

There is a shared opportunity for the company and independent developers.

Ebay will undoubtedly find ways to achieve a return on the huge investment it has made in Skype, but the rewards could be all the richer if it opens the platform to outside influences.

Skypejournal.com is an independent blog providing news, views and support for Skype users and developers

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'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.

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.

A list of my 329,001 fellow IBM employees.

Alphabetically.

By first name.

"How do we scale up the number of quality human relationships one person can sustain by many orders of magnitude? In an increasingly connected world, how does one person interact with a hundred thousand, a million or even a billion people?"

Adrian Scott on Edge.org

Useful? No.

(Just an example, folks; I don't work at IBM. I used to work for Adecco, which employed 3.5 million people. You should have seen Adecco's employee directory around the year 2000, but that's another story.)

Let me clarify Skype's opportunity.

Overload.

Being true to "It just works" even when there's too much.

• Too many names in the cloud. Which Gupta do you mean? When there a billion profiles in the cloud, every query will turn up too many results.
  
• Too much information about each person in the cloud. Our profiles will expand to look more like CVs/resumes and biographies than business cards.
  
• Too many conversational media and styles. Not just phone calls, but phone+text, text+video, video+game+text, voice+blog+irc, voice+desktopsharing, stressanalyzer+voice, etc. How should I contact Bill about his article at this time of day?
  
• Too many inquiries or calls in a day. Can Skype help me be Oprah popular without being rude? Can I avoid distractions gracefully? Can Skype help me prioritize whom I should call?
  
• Too many changes to the profiles of the people in my contacts list. As my contact list grows by a hundred or more each month, people already in my list are changing where they live, where they work, what they look like, whom they know, what they do for fun, what they care about, what they've said and done lately.
  
• Too many contacts. How can I make sense of the 50,000 people in my address book? Can I find someone based on something said in a conversation we had? How are my contacts related to me and to each other? What should I do to keep our relationships current?
  
• Too many and too rich an archive of prior call attempts and conversation records. I text, talk, or vid with Stuart a few times a day. When did we first mention video when talking about Skype? When I've had Skype for 10 years, I'll easily have gigabytes of archives (after SkypeVideo, maybe by year end). How do I find those conversations? those urls mentioned or people quoted?

I have just two eyes, two ears, and 24 hours in a day.

Skype, please help me manage today's and tomorrow's ever accellerating information overload.

The more I live in Skype,

• the more I bring my work, family, social, and civic life into Skype,
• the more I depend on Skype across my mobile phone and laptop and TiVo and Xbox360,
• the more my memories are stored in Skype's logs and archives than my email or my brain...

Skype, please help me:

• Spend my precious time wisely.
• Find relevance.
• Discover and create meaning.
• Lubricate and propel my relationships.
• Hold more efficient and effective meetings.
• Help others do likewise.

Thanks.

Ever press the dial pad numbers in Skype, but not have the tones work right? I wrote a tiny program that fixes it. Free. This is what it looks like:

You can download it here.

So the next time you call to order pizza, book movie tickets, or check your bank balance, I hope you'll use KhaosDial.

For more information or to leave some feedback, please see this post on the Skype forum.

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

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.

Just attended Cory Doctorow's keynote address - Europe’s Coming Broadcast Flag and Christian Lindholm - What is mobile life really about – Towards the seamless interplay between Hardware, Applications and Services. Cory made an appeal :

Good lesson for Asia too.

The Nokia presentation was disappointing - it was about what you can do with a Nokia phone today - cam phones and lifeblog - don't we all know that already? It did not touch upon bigger issues of how manufacturers of cell phones are gearing up for VOIP applications, what they are doing to embrace the open web. He spent a lot of time on the cam phone aspects but didn't talk us through how mobile technology is about communications or networking or better quality sound or video.

Malthe Sigurdsson is on now and talking about The Skype Brand - he is sharing the Skype philosophy of keeping it simple and opening up through the forums and developer community - it works! The room is crowded with people squatting on the floor - just shows the interest in Skype here. More on his talk here.

Questions:

How do you make money and how do you decide how much money you make ? Answer - VC, building userbase - plenty of money to go around, paid-for services where potential for revenues, tie-ups with hardware manufacturers, etc

Rumour - Yahoo buying Skype ? - Answer - there's so much more for Skype to do than being bought over by someone.

Can we buy stock? Answer - yeah we have stickers here :):)

Payment issues - Answer - being worked on - perhaps develop hubs.

Stuart is on this this afternoon talking about What's your presence strategy?

Dina Mehta is talking about Social Tools. She's begun with a moving set of pictures, where she's been working in the field using blogs, wiki's, Skype etc. Dina's shared via some posts on the Skype Journal her desire to apply more of these tools to enhancing the research process. To get her research stories face to face, (even though Skype has enabled us to collaborate on both research projects and client blogs) brings it all together in a practical manner.

What I enjoyed about listening is the message about having empathy. I think it's something that many bloggers share and identify in each other.

It's also something that Skype helps to enable.

These tools illustrated by the Tsunami blog demonstrate what an outpouring of emotion can do. A crisis is a powerful motivator. It's also demonstrates what happens when there are very low barriers to entry, when the tools are elegant and simple. Her examples of the Tsunami blog and for client implementations makes it easy to see that this is not really about technology. Rather uptake happens when human needs are catered to and barriers to participation are low.

See also:

• Dina's own notes on her presentation
• Mentalized's Points Summary
• Gunnar Langemark's blog
• Frederik's post: "Technology with Heart"
• CPH127
• Allan Jenkins comments that the Tsunami case proves "We don't have the tools is OUT as an excuse"
  
• melo: "The most interesting point for me is that the reason she thinks it worked was that people were helping out in the fields of expertise they had. Each person felt the pressure of responsibility and that made them keep on their respective fields but with a will to share."