Taipei (臺北市) put its RFP for a citywide wireless broadband network out to bid in July 2005. 20,000 access points later, and they are set to officially launch 20 December. The mayor of Taipei, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), is ending his second term with a technical demonstration. He will use Skype to talk the mayor of Tao Yuan, at the other end of the country, showing how the city's wifi service is not just for e-government but for everyday phone calls too. They'll be using the free-1 USB phone (which is Mac compatible) and the Ipevo view-1 video camera from Taiwan's own Ipevo.

What would it take for Skype to become the defaul telephone system for all of Taiwan? Will muni wifi help Ma Ying-jeou run for president in 2008? If you're there, please post photos to flickr, and tag them Skype.

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.

Are you a Skype user in New York City? Well today's election day is half over and you've probably not voted in this piddling election. Skype Journal stays out of partisan politics, and that's not changing today. But Andrew Raciej, running for NYC Public Advocate has a platform that promises free or cheap bandwidth, bandwidth for every New Yorker, bandwidth in subways and skyscrapers and tenements and schools, bandwidth for disaster preparedness, bandwidth for citizen participation in local government, bandwidth everywhere.

He makes the case that a universal Wi-Fi system is needed for economic development. That it fuels better government, better public education, economic mobility, attracts business, help bus and train riders commute. He says Wi-Fi bridges what he calls three digital divides:

First, New York City as first among American Cities. I love that he raises the spectre of Philadelphia having better municipal connectivity. You can hear New Yorkers growl at that.

Second, NYC competing with foreign cities for capital, talent, culture, and industry. The most wired cities have an unnatural advantage.

Third, high-speed haves and have-nots. "Having broadband access without affordability is like having a highway without a car: you can’t go anywhere." It's not enough, he says, to offer dial-up to the poor in a broadband world. Universal access creates opportunity and a level playing field for individuals and for small businesses.

These arguments apply to any metro. To Oakland, California, (are you listening Mayor Brown?). To a recovered New Orleans. To Mumbai and Beijing. New York has a slight edge: lots of dark fiber to create the muni backbone.

I met Andrew at the first Web 2.0 conference just before he launched the Personal Democracy Forum online magazine in Fall 2004. He's smart, professional, cooler than me, and eager to make a difference. Now I don't know him well enough to give him a character reference. And since I haven't looked at the other candidates and no longer live in New York I'm unable to endorse him. But his ideas, his platform, merit every civic minded voter's consideration, wherever you live.