Skylook 2.0 for Skype and Outlook is coming next month, beefs up sophisticated alerting and remote controls. The coolest thing is it uses Skype to bring live activity in Outlook to your mobile phone when you're away from your desktop. If you live in Outlook, take a look at their preview page for screenshots and a 10% discount coupon.

15 Apps for Recording Skype Conversations. I think this is the most complete list at the moment. Good job, Andy Boyd. 10 for Windows, 5 for Mac. I'd add YapperNut's Amy recorder for Windows, free download, and bundled with the YapperMouse mouse+phone for Skype. Any recorders for Linux or Skype mobile? For Skype video calls?

Transcribe your Skype conversations. Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 for Windows is out, $99 upgrade. This should be built-in functionality for enterprise versions of Skype. One of the ways you add value is convert Skype calls to text, and post them to team blogs as meeting minutes.

Skype for Windows Beta Preview updated today. The latest version 2.6.0.74, a hefty 12 Mb, takes care of a few rare but nasty bugs and adds a Google toolbar for Internet Explorer with a Skype button on it. (I'm waiting for a Firefox googlebar, please.) The Help | Check for update menu command won't tell you there's this newer version.

Keynoter simulSkypecast from South African conference today. Stephen Downes on learning objects. Downes almost always make me angry when he talks, because he rudely challenges my worldview with facts and logic. And then, maybe minutes or days later, it sinks in and I get it. This was a fast and free way to bring the world into a conference, hopefully others will take note.

FireOlive.com is a Google News + Skype mashup. Call in with Skype or phone, record your thoughts on a news topic, and your message goes live on the site within 2 - 5 minutes. It's blindingly simple, and addictive. I can't wait for this to become a common feature on other news sites like digg or slashdot.

Skype developers can win $2,000. Funambol put a Skype PIM Plug-in on its hit list of extensions with open bounties. They want to sync a user's Skype data with the Funambol mobile app.

China to be First Internet Nation next year. More broadband users than US, fertile ground for consumer VoIP and net television, say two research firms. As important as North America is to eBay this year, I'll bet China takes on new importance for both eBay and Skype next year. vnunet article.

Got a tip? Leave a note!

• DEMO China. Sep 06 - Sep 08, Tianjin.

• Star Trek 40th Anniversary Celebration & Conference. Sep 08 - Sep 10, Seattle, Washington at The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. But you can celebrate anywhere. Remember, Gene Rodenberry's folks were showing wearable combadges, machine translation, and flip-top phones on television in the 1960s, setting expectations we rose to fill. "Skype Trek" anyone?

• VON - Fall 2006. Sep 11- 14, Boston, Massachussetts. This is old-school VoIP's big get together, where everyone's selling to carriers and the huge enterprise. They've had a year since eBay shocked them by paying billions for Skype. Now everyone's had a year to react. How smart are the responses?
  
  Several companies will launch Skype-related products at VON.
  
  Skype Journal's Jim Courtney, Kevin Delaney, and Martin Geddes will be there; Kevin and Martin speaking.

• Digital ID World 2006: Managing The Decentralization of Identity. Sep 11 - Sep 13, Santa Clara, California. Managing user directories, architecting name spaces, authentication, authorization, identity banking, identity brokering, ID lifecycles, namespace harmonization. Managing digital identity is just one thing that Skype helps user do but that others do better.
  
  Stuart Henshall and I will be there.

• MobileHCI 06 - Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. Sep 12 - 15. Espoo, Finland. Designing Skype for PCs is only vaguely like designing for devices that fit in the hand, with poor resolution, spotty connectivity, positional awareness, and that travel in your bag or pocket. We'll know Skype for mobiles are maturing as (a) their user experiences distill Skype's essence while (b) diverging from Skype for the Desktop's design assumptions and conventions.

• The Future of Web Apps Summit. Sep 13 - Sep 14, San Francisco. A killer cast of Web 2.0 luminaries (aka the people you see at all of these events.) AJAX and web services redux, maybe a few new ideas.

• Social Network Tools and their Business Application: Blogs, Podcasting, Instant Messaging, RSS and Wikis. Sep 20 - 21, London. Classes. Reminds me of the Social Tools in the Enterprise Symposium I spoke at two summers' ago. Euan, buy Stowe a glass of red for me.

• OneWebDay: A time to celebrate the Internet. Sep 22, all over the world. "One web, One world, One day." What will you do to share your appreciation of the net? I'm still working on my project.

• LoveParade SF. Sep 23 - Sep 24, San Francisco.

• Internet Research 7.0: Internet Convergences. Sep 27 - 30. Brisbane, Australia. Scientists from around the world sharing their findings. Huge conference, 200+ sessions. Brilliant hallway. Would love to see Pamela Koch's presentation: Beauty is in the Eye of the QQ User: Perceptions and Press about Instant Messaging in China. A shout out to fellow metablogger Alex Halavais.

Know an event we should cover? Leave a comment here or a tip.

The VoIPWiki Blog reports a Chinese firm reverse engineered Skype's communications protocol. It allows Skype-to-compatible softphone calls.This is credible; I've talked with a member of the team that built a Skype-compatible softphone. They hope to go public by month end. We're eager to discover if they will publish the protocols, offer Skype-compatible consumer software, offer Skype-compatible engineering products to other developers, sell their firm to a bigger company, or simply offer consulting services.

I've also used a demo version of software that crawls the Skype cloud, downloading profile data. From another group. This is not "the Skype database" but the natural white-page listing that all users put in their public profile. Skype's servers, and the financial data kept there, are not touched by this system. Screenshots:

Both systems build on detailed knowledge of Skype network parts not on Skype's servers.To build a Skype-compatible client, they had to figure out:

• how to see and navigate through the Skype cloud, to find a Skype client.
• publish their own client's profile into the Skype cloud, so a Skype client could find them
• negotiate starting the call session, including encryption and

Publishing the Skype calling protocol would create new opportunities for products and developers:

1. Third parties can build Skype connectivity into their own software, no longer requiring an official Skype client.
2. It may open up creation of Skype-compatible server software. So your salesforce system could IM you.
3. It could open up Skype to PBX integration. So you might preserve Skype identity, authentication, encryption, and presence while routed through an Asterisk server.

The profile probe is a slightly different issue. In this case, software that mines the Skype cloud for profile data is working with "dirty data." The collection is unverified, often clearly faked (an unbelievable number of people live in Antarctica), old, and incomplete. It does have some gems. Correction: The cloud has email addresses, hidden in the Skype user interface but used to locate friends. The cloud has email addresses, but they are hashed and not human readable. 

I'm not sitting at the management table, but Skype has several choices.

Open. They're already on the path to opening up more of their apps at the API level. Skype could embrace this at the protocol level too. This is the hardest thing to do, but may pay off in the long run. Exposing these protocols is the only way for the Skype network to become an industry standard. And it would put Skype in a position of leadership the way Microsoft is for dot net, Sun is for Java, and Adobe is for Flash.

Switch. Skype could change the protocols, breaking the new software. This is a costly and temporary solution; tricky but doable. Replacing Skype clients for updates is hard enough; getting everyone to migrate could kill the brand love. It won't be long until the Chinese engineers figure out how to get in again.

Quash. Skype might try to blow out the startup's fire. eBay has a powerful combination of PR, lobbyists, litigators, and business allies. Even in China. Skype could try to accuse the startup of piracy. My guess is Skype will tread litely. These tactics rarely work in China and often tarnish the reputation of the outsider applying the pressure.

Ignore. Skype has enough to do. Wait and see.

Invest. Buy the team, put them to work. 

Jim Courtney says technology does not a brand make. It takes quality control, aesthetics, user experience, customer services, an ecosystem of ancillary products, and integration with other systems. Skype's and eBay's marketing are a higher barrier to entry than technology.

Skype personnel were not available for comment. Hat tips to 9Skype, Jan Geirnaert in Malaysia and Lee Dryburgh in Austria.

Technorati Tags: skype, ebay, skypejournal, security, privacy, compatibility, ecosystem

Skype on your razr?
incompatible today.
SoonR might do it.

Net neutrality
astroturfed, lobbied and shelved
telcos win again

fcc taxes Vonage
maybe SkypeOut too
Save the Internet!

pick friends well, Yahoo!
AT&T messenger
now with NSA

Supernova word:
people Curate their passions
a new meme rises

Calls in US free
June promo: call the world free.
Skype teases America

Censor carefully:
Global Online Freedom Act.
Do you read Chinese?

Packard-Bell laptop
push keyboard to call
or answer the phone

Phishing in Skypeland
Suckers waiting to be fleeced
Study the handbook

The Financial Times' Alison Maitland scored an interview with Niklas Zennström that ran yesterday. In it Zennström confirms the TOM-Skype joint venture censors text messages on behalf of the Chinese government. He claims: "One thing that’s certain is that those things are in no way jeopardising the privacy or the security of any of the users."

I posed the following questions to Skype but they have no comment beyond trying to insulate Skype from responsibility. "The Skype offering in China is actively managed by our joint venture in the country; TOM Online. Skype works hard to co-operate with local laws and regulations in all markets where we do business." 

1. Is TOM only filtering chats where at least one of the callers' accounts were signed up by TOM Online?
   
   
2. Will TOM filter chats if both parties are Chinese nationals but outside the PRC, say travelling in the US?
   
   
3. Is TOM only filtering conversations where at least one of the parties are using the custom version of the Skype client written for the joint venture?
   
   
4. Will TOM filter conversations using the TOM client being used by non-PRC nationals who are outside of China?
   
   
5. Does TOM's contract with Skype provide for disclosure to Skype and Skype users when their information is provided to a government official?
   
   
6. Are records of what the filter does kept? If so, by whom? Does Skype have or keep copies of those record?
   
   
7. Does the filtering mechanism use a list of keywords? If so, is the list public? May I have a copy? Who has the list? How often does it change?
   
   
8. Are the keywords only in Simplified Chinese or are they in other languages too?
   
   
9. Is China the only country where Skype and Skype's partner have set up filtering?
   
   
10. Do all Skype chats have the potential for a hidden participant, whether human or a robot?
    
    
11. Are filenames for transfer subject to filtering?
    
    
12. Are people's names among the keywords?
    
    
13. Are the content of files transferred via Skype also subject to filtering?
    
    
14. Does Skype encrypt end-to-end the IMs that are subject to filtering?
    
    
15. In a multiparty, multinational chat, can I as an American citizen have my text to a British subject filtered if someone from Shanghai is in that chat too?
    
    
16. Are audio conversations, where at least one party is in China, being listended to, filtered or recorded?
    
    
17. Are all calls filtered, or only if users meet certain criteria, or are conversations selected for filtering randomly?

Skypes founders are not strangers to prickly questions of international law and corporate ethics. Their background with file sharing firm Kazaa left them very aware of the business and technology strategies available and their legal and social consequences. This is also a context where phone companies completely block Skype.com and Skype conversations. Did the ethics conversation ever took place at Skype when they agreed to the Chinese joint venture? Who was involved and was there a real debate? And did eBay understand this situation before the acquisition?

See also:

• Jan in Malaysia: "The difference between Asia where Internet is seen as venue for free expression in Asia, unlike China. Thank god I live in Malaysia. Malaysia Boleh ! Wawasan 2020."
  
• Metafilter thread. "Oh dear, I had high hopes that Skype would hold out. Still, I guess they are telling us. Can anyone find the list of banned words in the TOM client?"
  
• China Herald: "But on a positive note, unlike Yahoo, Skype does not help to send their users to prison"
  
• 21talks: "And dear readers, the next time you want to give a call to the holy Dalai Lama, just say you’re trying to reach the smiling guy with glasses and a yellow head cap."
• IP Democracy: "Yeah, well, last I checked, the U.S. and Germany don’t lock up their journalists and throw away the key."

Technorati Tags: skype, skypejournal, china, chinese, tomonline, tom-skype, filter, filtering, censorship, censor, blocking, ebay inc, ebayinc, ebay, skypetechnologies, policy, strategy, ethics, moral, legal, packetsniffing, surveillance,

From China Tech News:

China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) reiterated that it still has not formulated guidelines concerning VoIP businesses and that many current VoIP businesses could potentially be illegal.

Companies like Netease (NTES), Tom Online (TOMO), Skype, and Tencent have all started VoIP services in China. And the 263 Group and HL95 have also recently entered the sector.

The VoIP sector offers great financial rewards for companies because voice communications on the network can be as much as ten times cheaper than traditional fixed-line phones.

MII says that it is still testing VoIP and forbids illegal "phone cafes" from opening in China. It also offered no clear date on when it will issue guidelines for businesses to operate legally.

Two new announcements from Skype Portal Partners (Onet - Poland and TOMSkype in China) appear to confirm my thoughts about Skype becoming a Global Media Network player as apposed to a being a Global Telecom as Skype touts on their home page.

Onet Poland

Breaking news from Gdańsk, Poland with Skype Journal’s contact Tomasz Tybulewicz reports via the Polish media site WirtualneMedia that Skype has partnered with Onet Poland’s biggest web portal. Skype will deliver a special Skype version which is Onet-branded. The first version is 1.3.11.48 and may be downloaded here.

continue reading.....

James Seng is running an exciting experiment with Wi-Fi handsets and SIP at Apricot 2005. Every attendee is able to use the new phones in the same old way. It's an important step. Wonder what they will be doing at TED in this regard this year.

>This is part of the APEET ENUM/SIP Live Trial we have been putting together for the last few months. Every wifi phones are assigned with a SIP address which also comes with an ENUM1 number and this allows APRICOT delegates to call each another. Additionally, we also put up PSTN gateways in China, Taiwan and Singapore (US pending) so these phones can also be used to call back to PSTN phones in these countries (free of cos). James Seng

Skype recently announced a deal with HGC in Hong Kong while news is now breaking of another deal in Korea with iMate. iMate is the largest distributor for Windows Smart Phones. Both these announcements are interesting. They also suggest a "quickening" for the pace of change. So far the HGC release looks similar to the old formula applied elsewhere. (Scary after deals in Taiwan, China, Japan and Korea, we can call this version common place.) with one difference. HGC is a landline operator. In the case of iMate it is a technology story. Now we have a Smart Phone distributor promising Skype mobility with your mobile. Skype's PDA version is already running on some iMate products.

continue reading.....

Skype and emotional ties from voice. I've been learning a bit about music and Skype too. Read John's last line. Often there are real surprises when one engages with strangers. I had two quite different ones today as a result of iPodRadio. One finished by pointing me to "The Intimate Planet".

The bottom line is this: they reached at random out into the Datacloud and found a real friend. And I feel like I have been graced with a real friend in both of them. Given the fact that I've been getting interesting messages from distant strangers since 1985, why do I think the big deal? Why is this different? Because these strangers have voices. There's a lot more emotional bandwidth in the human voice. I'm always surprised by the Meatspace version of someone I've only encountered in ASCII. I'm rarely surprised by someone I've only met on the phone. But one doesn't get random phone calls from Viet Nam or China, or at least one never could before.Skype changes all that. Now anybody can talk to anybody, anywhere. At zero cost. This changes everything. When we can talk, really talk, to one another, we can connect at the heart.

The potential of establishing a real emotional connection is exponentially advantaged. And I honestly don't think it would have been any different had they been guys. In the days since, I've received another random call from a guy in Australia. We talked, very entertainingly, for awhile. I'm glad to know him too. (He wasn't trying to practice his English. He actually seems to prefer his version. He was just doing it because he could.)

..................Anyway, I feel as if the Global Village became real to me that night, and, indeed, it has become the Global Dinner Party. All at once. The small world has become the intimate world.

I'm beginning to think this Internet thing may turn out to be emotionally important after all.

BarlowFriendz: The Intimate Planet

The promised Skype conferencing capability is nearing launch. The preview version is available for additional testing today. To confirm I just connect a conference with Bay Area (2), France and India. Great call quality. I then connected another with China and Bay Area. All off my IBM t-40 laptop. Sound quality was pretty good. There appeared to be no lag. I had excellent voice and sound quality although not all participants could claim this 100% of the connection time.

Skype Launches Free Conference Calling
LUXEMBOURG - Up to 5 People Can Talk Together From Anywhere in the World -
Skype Technologies S.A., the Global P2P Telephony Company that offers consumers the ability to make free voice calls using their broadband connections, today announced the world's first peer-to-peer (P2P) Internet telephony conference calling feature, allowing up to five friends to talk with each other simultaneously, regardless of geography. The new version also includes a multiple call hold feature that allows for 16 callers to be simultaneously put on hold by a single user. Scoop: Skype Launches Free Conference Calling

An early release on 0.97 is on the Skype forums. (UPDATE: Note this file downloads as beta-preview and still registers as 0.96.0.40. when installed. However lots more functionality) Where Skype's small team needs help is with "getting the numbers" for testing. I'd find it pretty hard to immediate conference six people in and start a conference and see if the system breaks.

We have been working hard on our next release and we are pleased to make this available to our forum readers before the general public. You can get the latest version of Skype here: http://download.skype.com/SkypeSetup-Beta-Preview.exe

Note that we have identified a bug which may be specifically related to IBM Thinkpads (T40) whereby when they try to add a 6th conference participant they get Blue Screen of Death error. Please let us know here if you see this error (or any other feedback) as soon as possible along with which setup you are using. As with any beta release, we encourage you to download and use Skype at your own risk. Thanks for helping us to test and improve Skype! Skype - free conferencing version - Feedback pls.

It looks easy. I got the head's up on it from Bill Cambell when I logged on this morning.

How to conference:
If you want to dial several people all at once and start a conference call with them, you first need to select participants from your Contact List by holding "ctrl" and clicking them. Once they have been selected, click the conference toolbar button. This will show you the conference tab and you will see the names of the participants you have called. If and when these participants answer your call, they will be added to the conference.

Or, if you are already in an active call and would like to add an additional participant to a conference, you can select the person you want to add to the conference from your contact list and click the conferencing toolbar button OR you can simply right-click a new contact from your Contact List and choose "Invite to conference"

Keep in mind that the host of the conference (the person who started the conference) is the only person that can add new participants. In addition, because Skype conferences are done Peer-to-Peer, it's important that the conference host (the person who starts the conference) has a good Internet connection and computer. If you are planning to conference with many participants you should choose the person with the best internet connection to be the initiator (host) of the conference.
Skype

Summary: Breakthough conference calling application, will work globally with quality broadband connections and recent PC's. Text messaging is maintained with individuals although there is no aggregated conference call text system from what I can see.