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

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

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

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

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

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

Like Skype.

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

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

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

Chat with a friend. Talking points:

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

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

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

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

VoIP as Revolution

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

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

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

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

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

Let's think "Voices for Freedom".

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

Skype Journal confirmed today that the only Internet Service Provider in the Sultanate of Oman blocks its residents from web access to Skype.com. This keeps people from downloading or updating the software and from buying SkypeIn phone numbers, voice mail service, and SkypeOut minutes.

Omantel, the Oman Telecommunications Company, offered stock to the public his week but still holds the state monopoly for both land-line telephony and Internet service. It is generally believed that Omantel blocks VoIP (voice over the Internet) as unlawful circumvention of their telephone system. Omantel staff said they don't expect changes to this policy. Some hope authorization of Nawras Telecom as a mobile service operator will eventually create competitive pressure.

600 thousand expatriates live in Oman and lower-cost telephony has been very popular. Net2Phone, Skype, MSN and the like help them stay in touch with their home country.

See also:

• Skype Journal: UAE Blocks Skype.com, 24 April 2005
• Skype Journal: UAE Blocks Skype.com; follow-up, 7 May 2005.
• Wikipedia: Communications in Oman

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