Coming up:

• Skypecast: Global Connect 2006 Election Night Coverage. Today.

• ETel '07 registration is open. See you innovators there.

User stories and practices:

• "Mobile Skype Really Sucks," refers to the Pocket PC version.

• "SkypeIn not in right now. Incoming calls routed nowhere." UK.

• "We hate to bring bad news but..." Skype Journalist Jan loses his Skype credits.

• The Giant Petroleum Company is Relying on Skype for Communication. Works even when mobile networks fail.

• Why SkypeCasts Transcription? Advice from an experienced podcaster.

Products:

• Skype Recorder v1.2 for Windows released.

• New Lie Detector for Skype Phones. KishKish's Skype Answering Machine now includes a Voice Stress Analyzer.

• Adobe's Acrobat Connect Professional (deserving its own story) includes server-driven audio and video conferencing. Starting next year.  

• eWeek reviews: Wi-Fi Skype Phones Disappoint. "Devices lack adequate roaming and battery life capabilities." Skype Speakerphone Is Conference Pro. "The Communicator's reception was excellent when used for Skype calls in tests." 

Industry News:

• eWeek: IT Managers Can't Afford to Ignore Skype. "Like all viral technologies, Skype ultimately will not be stopped at the enterprise door." Enterprises Need to Deal with Skype Boom. "Five things Skype should do to be more enterprise-friendly:
  1. Make deployment easier.
  2. Make management easier.
  3. Lock out the supernode.
  4. Improve documentation.
  5. Add an optional enterprise element to the Skype certification process."

• Kazaa Settles with Music Trade Association for $10 Million. Good for Sharman, one more step toward survival after the travesty of MGM v. Grokster. via BetaNews.

The 2006 O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference was the best gathering of VoIP revolutionaries ever. Next year's ETel starts February 28, 2007, and I hope to see you there. If you have a topic or product to present, submit your proposals by September 26. Topic requests, email etelchair at oreilly dot com.

From Skype Journal's coverage of ETel06:

• FON - Your Community Wi-Fi Provider
• Day One Reflections - Emerging Telephony
• ETel: Disappearing telephony
• Jeff Bonforte, Yahoo!
• Sean Egan, Google ETel
• Phil Wolff, Skype Journal at ETel
• David Isenberg - Fat Pipes
• Brad Templeton - EFF
• PayPal at ETel
• Phillip Zimmermann at ETEL

Here's three Skype products that aim to enhance your Skypeing experience that leaves me questioning exactly what I'm buying with Skype Certified. The three products are the VoSky Chatterbox, Jawbone Headset and the Motorola Wireless Interenet Calling Kit. Each provide a different angle on bettering the standard Skyper's headset and as you might expect each has their pro's and con's.

VoSky Chatterbox.

This simple USB device provides an easily portable plug and play speakerphone for Skype. It's simple to use and requires no additional software to be loaded. It has a volume and mute button on top and works probably as expected, as a low cost speakerphone. I'd liken it to the solution we had as kids when we could finally plug in a speakerphone box between the old phone and the whole family sat around. In principle great, in practice it left something to be desired. The Chatterbox is a little like this. It works. It's also no substitute for a decent headset. The caller on the other end of the line will know and possibly complain. Handsfree solutions curently work better with a good set of speakers and a proper stand mic. Locate them correctly and the caller won't get a any feedback. Many laptops work as good as the Chatterbox. If you feel the need try it. Just don't expect it to be a Polycom and ready for the office. For kids it may be more robust than a headset - read youngsters talking to Grandma.

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OK, I can’t resist posting. I’ve been a good boy, done my day’s alloted work (OK, I should have phoned the VAT man, maybe tomorrow). The kids are asleep for their afternoon naps.

The News Du Jour is that a company called FON are starting a “user-sponsored” public WiFi network. I saw their pitch at the ETel conference, and you have to be impressed by their passion, if nothing else.

There’s plenty of places to go read the PR blurb and the blogospheric commentary.

First, the good news. This aligns with what I’ve been saying for a long time, namely that the locus of innovation in telecom will move to how networks are priced and financed. When the user and owner interests align (because in some respect they’re the same folk), nobody cares any more about capturing the consumer surplus of the stupid network.

Now the bad news. I think they’ve started with the hardest case first, which is consumers. The highest possible cost per added node, the lowest revenue per user. A more promising start might be enabling public-service workers to roam among localities, or companies to have reciprocal rights in business parks.

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• Knowing Skype and its competitors may earn you the Product Manager – Mobile Instant Messaging job at Verizon.
• VoIP News: Phil Wolff Talks Skypenomics at the O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference includes a few highlights.
• YASP (Yet another soft phone): voipstunt.
• Chinagate-Skype, for the Chinese diaspora. Jaanus' post on the new portal partnership. Smart alliance; helping families and commerce that cross the globe stay connected.
• BT's Broadband Voice outage for a few hours this week. What uptime constitutes phone replacement?
• Nuvvo shows SkypeWeb presence for teachers and students in their learning community. Now they're waiting for SkypeWeb to be rolled into an update of Skype 2.0.
• Warner Music Group (WMG) will sell ringtones through Skype. Skype still doesn't offer the ability to tailor ringtones to a caller, a group of callers, or to the time of day/day of week. So I don't know how the whole ringtone thing is. In addition, nearly all Skypers use PCs, so they get visual cues, making ringtones less useful. For the 40% of us who use Skype in the workplace, "Like a Virgin" is sure to make us popular among our colleagues. This follows Warner's general model for licensing music samples to mobile carriers. Are these licensed to all Skype users or just to those living in countries where copyright is enforceable?

Phillip Zimmermann of PGP fame outlines the future for VoIP encryption. A few years ago it began with PGPPhone; now called zPhone. He's provides clarity on how to handle "man in the middle" attacks. His beta will be released at the end of February. This is definitely one to watch.

(Note, this was recorded on my iPod with iTalk, it is not meant to be IT Conversations. In a few weeks I'm sure many of these will be available there)

The PayPal team outlined their approach to micro payements focusing on a new cost structure 5% + 5cents. They were the only eBay/Skype presence at ETel.

(Note, this was recorded on my iPod with iTalk, it is not meant to be IT Conversations. In a few weeks I'm sure many of these will be available there)

Brad Templeton on CALEA, the threat to VoIP. Fun presentation. Part of three that dispensed with PowerPoint slides and better for it. See also David Isenberg.

(Note, this was recorded on my iPod with iTalk, it is not meant to be IT Conversations. In a few weeks I'm sure many of these will be available there)

David on Freedom to Connect a conference scheduled for early April. If you listen to both David and Brad Templeton then you will understand that "forces" are trying to take the innovative opportunities away. I say join the movement! Fats Pipes! Always On! Get Out of the Way!

(Note, this was recorded on my iPod with iTalk, it is not meant to be IT Conversations. In a few weeks I'm sure many of these will be available there)

Phil's facts on Skype for ETel. Skype was on everyone's lips at ETel and yet many knew little about it. "Closed" was an anathema to many in the audience.

(Note, this was recorded on my iPod with iTalk, it is not meant to be IT Conversations. In a few weeks I'm sure many of these will be available there)

[Correction] Sean Egan leads the Google Talk Libjingle program. Before Google he led the GAIM open IM project. He talks of an API that is running ahead of client development. Great for developers.

(Note, this was recorded on my iPod with iTalk, it is not meant to be IT Conversations. In a few weeks I'm sure many of these will be available there)

Yahoo's new Messenger head talks about where they are going. Best quotable quote. There are more people in the US still using rotary dial phones than there are Vonage customers.

(Note, this was recorded on my iPod with iTalk, it is not meant to be IT Conversations. In a few weeks I'm sure many of these will be available there)

So far this conference has fueled more ideas (for me) than any VoIP related conference I've attended in the last two years!

The O'Reilly crowd appears to have gotten the basic mix right for this first conference on Emerging Telephony. Perhaps the naming isn't perfect, but it is understood. On topics, they have continued to focus on the fringe and what happens at the edge. VoIP is a clear component but the discussion is pushing towards Conversation or Voice 3.0. There's a mix of developers, companies and investors here. A few more of the big guys are stepping up this morning. France Telecom, Google, BT etc. The room has been packed with well over 300 people excluding what's going on in the halls. There has been a good balance and mix between the technical talk and enlightened briefing. The format focused on 15 minute presentations and 5 minute for lightning presentations is keeping things moving.

Skype has been mentioned by almost every speaker in some way. I know Skype was appoached to speak. Skype made a real (huge / big big) mistake not being here. As an audience all have now heard of Skype, probaby one third have not used it, another third have tried it but aren't really into it --- as many are Asterisk developers and engineers. The balance are hooked on Skype although I doubt any would state that Skype is the long term winner or solution provider. No one in this group believes in the nBillion paid for Skype. I'm writing this now while the Google Talk PM is making the case for Libjingle. He is pointing out that the Google Talk API is running ahead of the Google Talk client (a point Phil made recently).

Peter Cochrane spoke yesterday about the "emotional pull" of successful solutions. That's where there is one element or presentation "so far" missing here. Some of the examples and the lightning pitches have begun to share the "behavioral" and "sociological" impact of this new technology. It's the area I've enjoyed telling the stories about Skype (and other emerging examples). For the developers and engineers in the room working on Asterisk it is a set of stories they need to hear. New behaviors are demanding new applications. How the "few leading edge users" are using these new applications is key to future success. Thus someone really needs to link these examples together.

Standing alone, radio.livejournal, handiradio, yackpack etc are interesting. Bring the mobile, positional, media and billing components together and there's a bigger story that could help developers accelerate their ideas.

Separately, there was a great presentation on Rural Wi-Fi, and I hope after today when David Isenberg presents on Freedom to Connect that the audience leaves with a broader understanding of the regulations and policy developments that could simply destroy the value they are trying to create.

Phil provided a pithy brief on Skype facts and details yesterday. I'll post the audio recording later.

Tag : etel

There is plenty of interesting discussion going on here at Emerging Telephony. This is a quick post after a fun presentation. There is certainly a few marketing dollars targeted at this audience with T-shirts, postcards etc. I've been listening to the FON presentation which promises internet everywhere, Wi-Fi everywhere and the mission to build a WiFi nation globally. More than anything they are trying to build a community around shared access to Wi-Fi. Thus joined together into one network. I think this is an idea whose time has come. They will need this group, this audience to promote it and make it happen. One difficulty in the US is the license for most of us restricts sharing in this way. Will your ISP clamp down? To that I don't know.

I'm also aware of a similar example Wibiki. The business models are different and I'd have to look more deeply to asses the differences. It's perhaps worth reflecting on the earlier deals Skype did with Boingo. The models above have the potential to obsolete such deals. What they are both learning from is the capability to create a universal log-in to Wi-Fi. Interestingly, both of these types of initiatives could benefit from Skype sponsorship.

Tag : etel

I was really impressed by the pitch from Tellme earlier today. (Although, despite them being great voice usability experts, their web site is a pile of Flash-infested crud.) I’d assumed IVR stuff was dull. On the basis you’ll get the best insights from the session that superficially is least attractive, I selected this session. Turns out it was a good choice.

I really liked the idea as telephony as the most intimate medium — a whisper in your ear. But what Tellme really have cracked is making the IVR experience much closer to interacting with a human, and not a string of audio files tacked together with some shell scripts. They played lots of examples of really, truly awful IVR experiences. And then what they did to them.

This is important because good experiences drive real business. The customer’s impression of your business and brand is derived right from the experience they have. The example Tellme gave was UPS. Their old IVR system was very, very slow. The messages went on and on, slowly read. Do you really want UPS to be associated with “slow”? Thought not. Most of all, a good experience creates trust in your brand.

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Alec Saunders has a great writeup on the ballyhoo surround the recent Tello launch. He describes it thus:

The easy way to think about Tello is to imagine what Skype might be like if it were built for a business user. It’s a voice and IM app that can federate across multiple networks, support a heterogeneous universe of endpoints(hardware and software), and reflect presence information throughout the network. It’s a big vision. Alec Saunders

A few comments occur to me. The arguments for presence are it will help enterprise "productivity" dimension. The real issue is increasingly "attention management" and presence is just part of the functionality that enables the new models to emerge around the "economics of attention". This needs more thought. Similarly, Tello says they will federate IM systems so it doesn't matter which one you use anymore. I think this only sorts of works. I'd prefer to know that they are working towards a Jabber XMPP standard. Text is no longer something that provides a competitive advantage. It's the functionality and features you build around it. Perhaps this reflects my resistence to the likely requirement to upload my buddylists. The story also appears to ask the user to follow all sorts of routing info. Frankly I don't want to know about any of that. I do however want intelligence on the best way to make the connection at that moment. That intelligence should reflect both my status and the status of the person or people I want to connect with. No decisions required. Even auto converters where the exchange will be flagged or structured to be asynchonous.

An interesting panel on design and usability. Most interesting is BJ Fogg sharing his useablity thoughts behind YackPack. This is really a neat application. I'd heard about it but not followed it up in the past. In his case he's actually subscri bed to twenty six packs right now. The interface is very simple. He keep reinforcing taking things out that people aren't using. Basically Yack Pack is a fun method for broadcast audio messaging. Both voice and text are available. Check out the explanatory video. It's intriguing. Here's an example of how to send an audio blast to a group of friends or pack.

It's a great example, with the use of pictures, the simple click, record and send. In many ways not all that different to the voice message feature in Skype. YackPack certainly illustrates where Skype could go with audio / video blasts. There's no reason this couldn't be developed and copied in Skype particularly now that SkypeWeb exists. Is it a priority at Skype? Probably not. Should it be? It's an example of a feature that is "new" thus Skype had the opportunity to innovate in this space and hasn't. When video blasts are restricted to your buddylist "spam" is not a problem. Similarly, additional groups that you might subscribe your SkypeID to would be a value added service. Note that networking groups would probably pay the subscription. Enough said.

Tag : etel

I've just arrived at Emerging Telephony. Today various workshops and discussions are happening, tomorrow the conference formally starts. I've ducked in to an Asterisk hacks session. Not sure what I'll find. What I'm seeking is a sense of how adventuous the Asterisk community is and where they are going. There is a good crowd already here. I'd guess O'Reilly will be very happy with 1st show attendance. In the end I'm not sure how much I really learned from this session.

The session moderator is introducing this session on Asterisk, VoIP, and other great hacks. He says telecom has been an adjunct to the systems in the company. Stop thinking about it like a telephone. Let's take a look at what is possible. [Ed: spelling correction. The soft PBX is spelled Asterisk, whereas Asterix refers to the pint sized Gaul of comic book fame.]

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We'll be blogging lightly this week. Bill is sick, so is my computer (blue screen after blue screen), Stuart is travelling and Martin's overwhelmed by Baby Geddes. Tips are most welcome.

I have four more passes to O'Reilly's Emerging Telephony Conference to give away. Please leave a comment or Skype me with your contact info and I'll pass them along this week. If you're coming to San Francisco 24-26 January, please let us know; we should have an eBay/Skype dinner. You can still get a 40% discount when you use the code "etel06sms" to register.

Of interest:

• Skype seems to trigger Intel and AMD cpu errors, easily recovered from but preventable if Skype engineers had been using new computers.
  
• Days since Saul promised to call Bill: 28.
  
• Not a Mac guy, I didn't know you can convert skype voicemail messages to mp3s using Audio Hijack Pro. Thanks, Language Lab Unleashed.
  
• SKMAP: Skype status icon on Google Map. Nice mashup. Thanks, Jan.
  
• IM This Page. Nice mockup and explanation on flickr for Skype's browser toolbar wishlist.
  
• How to configure Skype for a portable USB drive. In Japanese with screenshots. Don't miss the extensive thread at PortableApps.com for instructions in English.
  
• Reason of the Day to use Skype video: "I’m looking forward to seeing the 2006 calendar that features Czech politicians’ heads grafted onto famous works of art." by Rabbits, Toyen, and so forth
  

Tag : etel