Niklas Zennström speaks on intellectual property rights. (Tony Hallet, Silicon.com) "Software patents are hindering innovation. Patents should be granted when there is real innovation and real investment in innovation." "We allow third-party developers to develop on our platform. It's a great way to do it. We are helping them be successful. But there is a mental threshold you have to go through. People [at Skype] say 'Maybe we could have done that'."

EULAscan about Skype: customer written EULA reviews. My line-by-line review of the Skype Terms of Service.

Wael Ghandour's Guide to blocking Skype Blocking Skype Using Squid and OpenBSD (Help Net Security). Instructions for network admins.

Macromedia and Jabber make secure IM a selling point to the US Government. (Les perles du chat). Whereas Skype's secure messaging gets it banned? the news release. Government is a largely untapped market for Skype.

overview of the vTraveller USB handset (Gadget Spy). Skype Certified. Dial by saying the names of people in your address book. From VoIP Voice.

Skype + Trillian = SkyLlian (Hesspoint). SkyLlian brings your Skype contacts into Trillian.

Torcamp Rocked! (Alec Saunders) Bohemian 2.0?

Don't Buy DSL From This Man ... If You Can Help It (Tom Evslin). "Ed Whitacre is CEO of SBC, the huge local telecom monopoly which is about to swallow AT&T. The excitement of the progeny buying the former parent may be going to his head." Whitacre is dangerous to Skype. He thinks users and Skype should pay SBC/AT&T for Skype traffic over the DSL or cable line you're already renting.

Popular Post: Bluetooth & Skype (Skype Journal, February 2005).

The prize list is certainly attractive. There are three main categories:

1. Category/vertical search (re-mix eBay to help people find things more efficiently)
2. Web mash-up (re-mix eBay with another Web service)
3. Multi-platform (integrate eBay with Skype, PayPal, Outlook, GNOME, TiVo, etc.) applications

The eBay Developer Challenge 2006 starts November 14 and ends January 31.

Thanks to my Skype buddy Gary Weir for the heads-up on this news item.

Seems open only to legal residents of the US. Very strange that eBay would be so provincial in their outlook after buying Skype. H'mmmm...

The SkypeNet and SkypeWeb announcements are interesting. A bit scary too. Not for Google, the intended target, but possibly for members of the Skype Developer Community.

Lenn Pryor in today's Share Skype blog had this to say,

"We are announcing two new initiatives that make Skype and the Web a little more interesting and open up new possibilities for the developer and partner community... "

I am glad Lenn feels that SkypeNet and SkypeWeb will "open up new possibilities" because Skype's actions have been shutting down opportunities for developers.

Using the Skype API the Development Community created Web Presence Applications, integrations to e-mail systems like Outlook, and browsers like Internet Explorer, along with voice messaging/answering systems, like Pamela. In each case Skype moved into these tested and proven markets, thus eating the children they had spawned. Now the Skype Ecosystem is offered another API─ SkypeNet API.

For me, Skype’s new announcement just killed a $10,000+ contract for web presence I spent five months cultivating. Thanks, Skype. However, where I see a blunder of biblical proportions (lev 26:29 And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.), Martin Carleton, a developer of the Jyve Web Plugin for Skype, sees the move by Skype to be very positive.

A third perspective comes from Martin Geddes,

“Skype's limited resources are too diffused. Is a Skype toolbar really the biggest strategic imperative, something that cannot be done by a third party? An in-house video solution? Yet another web presence server?”

If Martin's insight is correct then Skype may be shooting itself in both feet: loss of strategic focus and a disheartened ecosystem. These are big problems to have just as Google Talk is emerging into the marketplace and as Yahoo and Microsoft sharpen their swords.

I have yet to meet a software developer who has made any money with their Skype Add-on applications. And yet these add-ons have created value for Skype. CRM and Outlook add-ons increase the use of SkypeOut. But the developers get no share of the revenue. Isn’t sharing good?

What do you see? Is Skype eating its children? Is SkypeNet and SkypeWeb creating new developer opportunities? Is Skype losing strategic focus? Tell us what you see.

Thanks to translation efforts of Giovanni Tomassini, Skype Journal's guide,"Learning Skype's Plug-in Architecture" is now available in Italian as Imparare l’Architettura delle Estensioni di Skype (pdf, 1.1mb). Learn the Skype API while making your own voice mail, in about an hour. Also in Spanish, Japanese, Russian and English.

Giovanni is a graduate of Electronic Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering of University of the Studies of Florence. In 1996 he set up the first Home Banking function for an Italian Bank. He works as the Networks Server Farm Administrator for a medium-size Italian Bank. He's the creator of the Pagineskype.it portal that promotes the use of Skype in the companies and Skype Italian Portal. Married with two sons, he lives to Arezzo, in the Tuscany between Siena and Florence.

It is a big day for the Mac Developer ecosystem. The Skype API is now available. It was announced on the Skype Forum a couple of hours ago here.
Skype is now Applescriptable!