Congratulations to the Jyve team who submitted a personal presence server with browsing and call forwarding to win the Skype Developer Competition. Full kudos to them. All the details can be found on the Skype site here. I certainly enjoyed supporting them during testing and constantly asking for more. Well done guys! Some of the others won't come as any surprise to Skype Journal readers, you have already read about them on these pages. Certainly shows the inventiveness and in some cases playful nature of Skype Developers.

Some of the other entrants. The only one I'm yet to try is the Dial MP3.

• Jybe, a simple and easy to use tool for sharing office documents and enabling real time collaboration over the web with Skype contacts.
• Dial Mp3, which allows you to listen to any mp3 in your collection on your phone.
• Pamela Basic, a personal assistant for Skype that answers calls and chats for you in 32 languages when you are away.
• Gizmoz, which lets all Skype users communicate with animated, 3D talking headz. :
• YapperNut Answer Machine for Skype ("Amy"), which offers voicemail, delayed messaging and allows you to receive and send messages when away from the computer.
• Spontania Video4IM, a high-quality video solution

Commercial Mentions:

• KhaosLabs - Free ActiveS COM wrapper.
  
• Columbus CRM (Skype integration with CRM solution)


• ISkoot (free call forwarding)


• Audiomatic (voice activated macros including Skype commands)


• SalesForce CRM integration

Choosing a WebCam

The word "ultimate" in the title refers only to supporting basic video picture quality while conferencing with Skype.

If you need more detailed information I would suggest looking at Home Office Reports who have compiled information on over a 100 or more web cams.

Webcams come in two basic varieties. They use either CMOS or CCD technology to capture light. If your budget permits narrow your search to those using CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) technology. This is the same technology used by the Hubble Space Telescope. They have excellent light gathering power. My Logitech 4000 Pro is CCD (price is about $80 US dollars). I can actually deliver a quality image in a dark room lit only by my two 17 inch LCD monitors. (Note the Logitech Quick Cam Zoom is NOT CCD! Even with a lamp shining in his eyes Carlo’s face is still too dark at night. But Carlo's cam looks just like mine...don’t you just love marketing people?)

My camera supports a frame rate of up to 30 frames a second. Most of the applications I test run at 15, but as the applications improve 30 frames per second will likely be more common so why not invest to have that extra fluidity in your videos in the future.

What resolution should you get? 640x480 or 320x240? Get the 640x480. Why? That is a big question. I suggest going here to find out why and just how much better one is than the other.

Update the camera driver. Even if you bought it today. Same goes for Microsoft DirectX, one of the most frequent causes of poor video quality according to Spontania Product Manager Mario Silva Sanz.

Tommorrow I will cover how your bandwidth affects video quality.

Skype's new video challenge really highlights their current strategic crisis. With more than half a million Skypers playing around with various video solutions for Skype, it shows what even a nascent developer community can achieve quickly. Do the new video entrants suggest Skype rethink strategically their development attention?

Other companies are learning Skype is a perfect piggyback to success. Both vSkype and Video4Skype (now Video4IM) have "relationships" with investors in common with Skype. With well over 500K users trying these products in days of their launch it's clear that Skype users are willing to try new things. The value of the SkypeAPI just become even more attractive.

Concurrently we are seeing the first clues to problems Skype is having coping with developers. These video products are being developed often without any input from Skype at all. So with video, Skype has gone from working on their own video solutions to watching three other companies prototype increasingly sophisticated applications. In a well-managed developer world these would not be surprises. I have good reason to think they were.

Questions Raised by Video:
Should Skype be trying to develop their own video solution? Or should they be working with developers to enable better video solutions? Should they turn over what they have learned to developers so far....? Do they need control over video to have control over their platform strategy?

This feels like a prime opportunity to create a real developers platform. If they can only let go and think on a dime. Think Playstation. Video is the game equivalent. By contrast what video needs is 3D audio. Skype didn't invent their audio codec. However, they must find a way to keep their lead in voice. The rest of the VoIP market now understands that. Video without voice has limited appeal.

A more detailed look - starting with video examples.

1. The power an effective developer community could bring to Skype.

Example 1: First they had to beat Apple's Tiger version of iChat. Now they find themselves on the backfoot with other video programs enhancing the user experience. These new Skype video entrants aren't just small companies or one-man bands. Both Spontania and VSkype have real backing. By contrast it appears Skype has one key engineer working on video.

Example 2: Look2Skype developed an Outlook plug-in and separately, other developers have been working on them. Skype has hired and developed their own Outlook and IE solutions of which the Outlook plugin was released recently. From my perspective this hardly looks like a priority and just killed another developer's product that has been out there for months. In Peter Henning's post, he writes they went out to the developer community and bought the developer. These two products are more tactical than strategic.

So what should Skype develop internally? What should they enable developers to do? Their indecision traces to their lack of vision for their platform and where they want to draw the roadmap for developers.

2. The challenges and the integration needs to the GUI that are currently lacking in the API.

Example 1: VSkype added a tab and icon to the Skype Client. They are perfectly positioned so even when you move the client the buttons follow it around. Now it's not clear that vSkype has broken any rules or agreements in creating this solution. It does demonstrate that enhanced products will need greater access to the GUI. In the case of video it may even make sense for Skype to enable the competition so the best product wins. That's my observation on MT-plugins. A best one seems to emerge.

Example 2: The SkypeAPI exposes important information about others and not just yourselves. There is no negotiation with your buddies when you authorize each other. Thus, once you are a buddy I can do anything I want with the online status info you send me. The presence information is some of the most important social networking information available. Skype must create solutions for layered presence and aliases.

3. Time to question where development efforts are going and what priorities.

Example 1: Voice Mail. I recommended voice messaging. It took them months to change and recognize the positioning advantage. We shared Skypecasting and Skype is a major podcasting tool today. The VM solution hasn't adapted to the challenge or the opportunity. By contrast, Steve Jobs is organizing Podcasting in iTunes and the bloggers etc love it. Gizmo launched and many told me they would switch for voice mail. When it comes to viral marketing the blogosphere would be all over Podcasting enhancements to Skype. By contrast an Outlook solution is a yawn.

Example 2: Voice Mail. I should get a copy. I should be able to apply a topic to voice messages, I should be able to confirm that I want to send. I should be able to forward messages under certain conditions. Etc. Zero progress since voice mail launched.

Example 3: Recent focus groups were held in both Silicon Valley and London. Focus groups aren't necessarily the best way to find out where to go next. Still some of the questions that were asked were intriguing. They included payment for ringtones, extended conference calling and some form of premium member status. These two provide an example of what I believe is shallow thinking, not probing where the real future value is likely to be. I have no reason to believe they asked about voice messaging, or podcasting etc. Ringtones shows a particularly short-sighted vision. Now play ringtones with iTunes - that's an idea.

Example 4: Billing and accounting. Not only needs work, it need solutions so developers can create programs that can use it as a back-end payment system. Every mobile phone co in the world wants to be your wallet. If Skype would work with the developers it could have more than half a chance.

Example 5: While "grouping" features are bound to come in the buddylist, they aren't likely to solve the need for 'alias', layering in identity and improved gradations in presence management. Similarly developers can't push the right data into Skype. For example when will Skype accept location data from me and represent it in my presence information?

New Threats are Emerging. Three examples that could change the playing field.

Example 1: RSSosphere. RSS and related XML solutions are radically changing how we gather information and how it is delivered. The real time nature means this will impact on IM / Text and Chat Systems. IM systems have not innovated. With voice currently stuck on a new plateau reinventing the real time infomation flow could get people moving again.

Example 2: Mobility Integration: Presence systems need enhancing. Location information is critical for effective networking. Dodgeball is just one example Opening the API to accept location information would be a big step forward.

Example 3: Voice Activation. Skype with their centralized contact list has a huge opportunity to provide a voice activated dialing system that would automatically update to mobiles etc. Concurrently voice authentication software can confirm the caller is who they say they are in the first x seconds of the call.

Example 4: Skype Profile information is already being used in new API related programs. The opportunity to port information into other programs by and under the control of users is just beginning to be understood. vCard enhancements are good. Profiles should become a "larger" development item and get the voice feature built in. These are game changers.

Strategically there are some obvious successes not leveraged.

• Voice Messaging and Conference calling --- see above.
  
• SkypeIn - There is no call forwarding option. Concurrently Business Development hasn't made the case to get mobile operators on board successfully yet. There remains a risk for E911 services.
  
• Presence Indicators: As launched nothing changed or added.
  Profile information remains static. It is apparently going out the API faster now and is better integrated with vcard options. That's a postive step.
  
• Multi-Chat and Chat: Archives remain a mess. They are not integrated with VM, and call information. Many of Skype features remain hidden unless you know where they are.

This started out with a video example. Then it becomes clear there are many competing strategic interests. As the complexity increases it become more difficult for developers to understand their safe bets and how they may make money. There are good reasons for Skype to integrate video into the client --- and that should be another post. I do hope Skype is looking closely at Spontania as they have some very neat mobile technology emerging.

These points are rasied not because Skype should dictate or layout their full roadmap. Rather the dialogue should be with the developer community. If Skype really wants to harness "our" energies then they simply have to let "us" in.