Brightcove will serve video from commercial producers. Facebridge will let users distribute their own videos. 2006 will be the year that Skype turns millions of Skypers into podcasters, vloggers, and videographers. Who at Skype is working on vid distribution alliances? The long tail of edge created content will dominate in time but there is still good money in Skype as a TV and movie player for the next few years.

Rich Tehrani has a timely riff on mashing up Service Oriented Architecture with VoIP. Bringing voice into enterprise app development.

Another Niklas-is-cool profile. Muesli for breakfast! Niklas is still hard at work with Skype: “My ambition is to make Skype into the world’s largest online communication company. That’s the driver. Financial gain is secondary.”

Google tests phone-enabling AdWords. Long-established technology, but never deployed at global scale. Dear eBay, Skype could design this in one day, prototype in three days, cut deals for the backend in one week, be serving US customers before Christmas. By eBay calling both parties, they (a) preserve caller/called anonymity, (b) match calls to the auction/sale, (c) improve the sale of lucrative but challenging product categories, and (d) charge sellers a small fee to more-than-cover costs. The faq.

cnskyper's Q-Face plug-in. Delightful creative art for your Skype profile.

Dan Gillmor in FT: Rise up against US oppressors. A defense of Internet application providers like Skype against SBC/AT&T and their congressional henchmen.

A Skype Equivalent Without "Big Brother"? (Slashdot). The meme continues to spread that an American Skype will be compromised worldwide by US police, military, and intelligence.

While Internet phone services are catching on rapidly, quality and reliability are still suspect (BusinessWeek). As prices fall, sound and consistency become competitive differentiators.

BT will offer free mobile phone service (TheBusinessOnline). BT’s new service will combine its existing Openzone wi-fi hotspots with a patchwork of new wi-max networks to compete with mobile operators and Skype.

Thanks to Rick Hultz and Jirong Zhou 周继荣 for the tips.

I received some feedback when I floated my previous post on Katrina earlier today. So being naive I sent the following response which outlines what appears possible to me.

Thank you for the FCC perspective. However if I understand correctly you can’t transfer it to a VoIP provider like Vonage or Skype. Thus the regulations aren't going to help much at all. This group is still tied into the tyranny of the fixed line. People need their numbers where access may be difficult and messages can be left.

I was approaching it from the following point of view…

• Minimal infrastructure. Minimal set up and training.
• Implementation in hours rather than days or months
• Put in the Astrodome an Internet café along with headsets.
• Provide broadband and WiFi
• Enable Skype on those PC’s / phone handsets. Word would spread rapidly.
• Enable account holders to open a Skype account and assign their home number to it (SkypeIn)
• They would be enabled with free voice mail at the same time.
• Using the latest version they could call forward if required to a mobile number (cost two cents per minute) or to another Skype account – buddy for free, thus establishing a more online point of contact.
• It costs nothing to open accounts.
• Presence would enable them to create support groups and networks quickly amongst neighbors.
• Bell South could probably arrange to keep ownership of the numbers if they wish, e.g. loan them to a service.
• There is no need for a switchboard; it does require some bandwidth….

Rather than ponder the outcome, it should be done for humanitarian reasons. The old system doesn't have an emergency response that is acceptable any more.

1) Let displaced account holders log in and claim their accounts (phone numbers) via the Internet. What's happening at the Astrodome?

I don't know of that happening. However, the FCC did actually, amazingly, do something right this time. They issued an emergency waiver of the number portability regulations. It is now allowable to port a number to a different geographic rate center. Under the actual rules, you can port your number to a different carrier, but its rate center assignment is fixed (modulo FX lines, which are controversial). Under the waiver, NO and other impact-area numbers can ring elsewhere. This will mostly be used by businesses, I suspect, but perhaps some people can get this too, once they settle into new digs.

It is somewhat harder, but not impossible, to point multiple phone numbers at a single phone. This would require, I think, two steps, one to port the number to an operative switch, and a second to Remote Call Forward it to a target number. A given phone can't, alas, have very many numbers on it (a few, actually), and in a place like the Astrodome, it might make sense to have a sort of switchboard set up to answer messages for lots of ported numbers.

Or will they:
1) just keep the bills running
2) not use their imaginations.

I don't know if BellSouth will do so, but the FCC's authorization of porting means that, at least in theory, other carriers can step into the breach.

Skype $3 billion dollar sellout? Is there a real story here? Robert X. Cringely adds to the rumor mill by reporting that Skype was almost sold last week for $3 billion to Rupert Murdoch who just bought MySpace for an extraordinary sum. Was that the reason for Tim's exuberant chatter at AlwaysOn?

Some facts and figures in this piece are clearly wrong to Skype watchers. Some numbers, e.g. the value of the "customers," suggest a possible valuation method. I do agree with part of his conclusion that Skype should partner with an independent mobile carrier. (T-Mobile? in the US) Still his assumption: no IPO in Skype's future; with a buyout nearly certain. The creative speculation appears shrewd and informed. So the questions?

• Is Skype worth $3 billion? 30 billion?
• Does Skype's M&A rumors affect partner plans and willingness to commit?
• Which buyers are more acceptable to Skypers? To Skype's business ecosystem?
• The money from an acquisition goes to the current owners (founders, some employees, investors). If you buy Skype for billions, how much more money would you want to invest and where would you put your money? If you and raised billions where would you spend the cash you raised?

What do you think? Can you substantiate? Read his blog Skyped.

Google is a perfect example of this latter effect, entering the market years after Alta Vista and Excite. And the Google of VoIP looks like it might be Skype, which was almost sold last week to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $3 billion. PBS | I, Cringely . July 28, 2005 - Skyped

Others that are talking Skype sell stories...
Om Malik
Newswireless
Mark Evans
Loic on Murdoch
Andrew Hansen
Jim Courtney: A Skype Investment Primer
Robert Scoble
Carlos N Velez: "Let's start a new rumor... Google is in serious merger discussions with Skype. The new company, to be called GooSky...."
Carlo at TechDirt
Jeremy Wagstaff: "I suppose we should steel ourselves for the possibility that it doesn't last, at least in its present format."
Michael Parekh: It's all Rope-a-dope
OnoTech: "Wrong, wrong, wrong"