We'll be blogging lightly this week. Bill is sick, so is my computer (blue screen after blue screen), Stuart is travelling and Martin's overwhelmed by Baby Geddes. Tips are most welcome.

I have four more passes to O'Reilly's Emerging Telephony Conference to give away. Please leave a comment or Skype me with your contact info and I'll pass them along this week. If you're coming to San Francisco 24-26 January, please let us know; we should have an eBay/Skype dinner. You can still get a 40% discount when you use the code "etel06sms" to register.

Of interest:

• Skype seems to trigger Intel and AMD cpu errors, easily recovered from but preventable if Skype engineers had been using new computers.
  
• Days since Saul promised to call Bill: 28.
  
• Not a Mac guy, I didn't know you can convert skype voicemail messages to mp3s using Audio Hijack Pro. Thanks, Language Lab Unleashed.
  
• SKMAP: Skype status icon on Google Map. Nice mashup. Thanks, Jan.
  
• IM This Page. Nice mockup and explanation on flickr for Skype's browser toolbar wishlist.
  
• How to configure Skype for a portable USB drive. In Japanese with screenshots. Don't miss the extensive thread at PortableApps.com for instructions in English.
  
• Reason of the Day to use Skype video: "I’m looking forward to seeing the 2006 calendar that features Czech politicians’ heads grafted onto famous works of art." by Rabbits, Toyen, and so forth
  

Tag : etel

We have Podcasting, Skypecasting and perhaps this community variant is buddycasting. While you can't have it today this mock-up from Uri Levanon displays the kind of thinking required to take the IM client to the next level. It also enables behavior similiar to what's seen on Live Journal, Xanga, MySpace etc.

Here is Uri's example. Everyone would have the opportunity to share the topic of their latest mini-cast.

Here's something I'd really like to have in Skype.

An option to share a single short voice message with my contacts list.

Gogelmogel

How would this work in Skype? Why is it such a neat idea?

1. Voice Messaging. Uses the current voice messaging system in a slightly different way. The recording stays resident unless requested by one of your buddies. When requested it is simply uploaded and delivered as a voice message.

2. Enhancements. We already need a topic name for voice mails. This illustrates how topics could add value to a voice message. Additionally, pinging a minicast server for "public" rather than "Buddy" only mini casts would enable this effectively to be a podcast distributed by Skype. It would be good for low volumes. With the topic enhancement you could tag for conversations.

3. Reply enables buddies to jump into a multi-chat for that mini-cast. The behavior is then very similar the high number of comments we see on Xanga, or MySpaces. Quit the multi-chat and you just left a comment. Close it and it will pop back up with the next comment etc. A simple way to network with your buddies buddies. Add a number of of replies counter and it becomes even more interesting. You may even want to sort your buddylist on most active mini-casts.

4. Format. This doesn't need to be audio. It could be video or even just a text message. It's a blog and not a blog. It's certainly social and enables people to find out more about others. Similarly the multi-chat reply means people can comment and leave the thread or stay and get the updates from others. Thus opt-in to multi-chats. Each mini-cast has it own-multichat. The records could be added to profiles etc.