UK’s OFCOM drags it’s heels on mobile net neutrality, leaving Skype users banned by many mobile operators. Same in other European markets. Jonathan Browning interviewed Skype’s Jean-Jacques Sahel, head of European regulatory affairs at Skype.
Skype PR supports a mountain climber who brings webcams to schools in developing countries.
 Your kids can Skype Santa (Florida time, Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays through 7 December, 4-5pm) @SandestinResort.
I met a bunch of people at the Enterprise 2.0 conference who don’t use Skype, more who only use it for family video calls, a few who use it for international calls, and several who’ve never been interested enough to try it. It reminds me that, with roughly 180 million active users worldwide and likely only 30 million active in the US and Canada, Skype has a greenfield of more than 200 million North Americans who aren’t using Skype. Building market reach looks like an important strategic goal through 2015. Skype’s net adoption rates (adoption less abandonment) have been large but linear. How will Skype redesign their products and rebalance their portfolio so net adoption rates accelerate?
New rumors iChat may come to iOS. So far it looks like IM, not voice or video. I’d be more interested f iChat came to operating systems outside the Apple universe.
Looks like Microsoft (and therefore Skype) support the horrendous SOPA bill moving through the US Congress. Al ex Wilhelm: “Microsoft is a major player in the Business Software Alliance, along with Apple and 27 other companies. And the BSA supports SOPA.” Learn more and do more to prevent the Internet Blacklist laws.
Pre-flight check in at Sheremetyevo International Airport over Skype. @svo_skype connects you to an operator for an interview, like a video call CAPTCHA. News release: Now for “flights operated by Air Astana, Royal Air Maroc, China Eastern Airlines, Estonian Air, Hainan Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, Iran Air, Jat Airways, Turkish Airlines, Transaero Airlines, Aerosvit, Ariana Afgan Airlines, Belavia , Dniproavia, Donbasaero, Nord Wind, Oren Air, Air Algerie” although Aeroflot hasn’t committed. Yet.
Skype Bra Fittings from Butterfly Collection Lingerie deliver personal service from the privacy of your home.
Brad Garlinghouse leaves AOL. A real loss.
Citigroup predicts a 2012 Amazon phone. Can’t wait for the “shop” button.
Skype pays musicians to sing Happy Birthday to your friends in their Say It With Skype Facebook app. All the flavors are great but I like The Parlotones’ cover.
New betas:  Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac and Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows, both approaching feature parity, both now with group screen sharing for Premium subscribers. You can IM and video call Facebook friends from within Skype, although this does not include voice calls (unless you unplug your webcam), conference calls or group video calls. Jonathan Rosenberg explains Skype is hosting supernodes on AWS EC2, is operating a gateway for Facebook identity/directory interop, the calls are flowing p2p through the Skype network, and Facebook is keeping some records about users and their activity. Darrell Etherington thinks this could make Skype even more popular, and Skype should integrate Facebook into Skype’s mobile and tablet apps. Skype promotional video for the release (QuickTime).
From my October 2010 Skypebook: 17 More On The Secret Facebook-Skype Roadmap:
- Sync contacts. Not just import, but synchronization. Keep my contacts fresh. TO DO.
- Sync user profile data. My Skype profile is shallow and often stale. Sync my profile data semi-automatically: “Do you approve this update?” TO DO.
- Sync availability. Online, Offline, Busy, In A Call, Do Not Disturb. Facebook has some presence indicators too, from their own chat and from their mobile clients. TO DO.
- Sync currency. What’s the exchange rate between Facebook credits and Skype credits? Let me pay for a long distance SkypeOut call with Facebook credits. TO DO.
- Facebook updates in the Skype contact list. Give me fresher social objects for talking with my contacts. Make it easier to sort contacts by the last time they updated, not just by alpha or the last time they talked with you. DONE.
- Skype history in Facebook’s timeline. Show my friends’ Skype history with me in my Facebook updates. Make it easier to dive back into a Skype conversation from the timeline. TO DO.
- Sync personas. Skype is already asking people to create multiple personas, so they log in with one ID for each job and another for home. Facebook will probably offer something similar so you can choose to keep your professional friends from learning too much about your hobbies and dating habits. Skype and Facebook will negotiate the data models and privacy policies that go with it. TO DO.
- People search. For all the importance of the Global Index to Skype’s operations, the real value is being able to find the right person to talk with. Both parties could do well to blend their search technologies to improve result relevancy and speed. TO DO.
- People recommendations. Skype can’t suggest people you might like or people you might know. Facebook can, so build recommendations into Skype. Skype has very specific data about times of day and places you call from and call to, which Facebook could use to improve recommendations. TO DO.
- Events and scheduling. One of the best social objects is an event. Before the call or chat we often plan and invite and schedule our talk. Skype should integrate with personal calendars and with public and semi-public event listings. Facebook’s have taken off as one of the top event directories along with Eventful and Upcoming. TO DO.
- Chat interop. My facebook friend chatting with me on facebook while I’m in my Skype chat. We each get the medium we choose. Lots of things to work out including persistence, behavior for adding people to a chat, privacy rules, encryption, archiving policy. STARTED.
- Groups sync. Facebook lists and groups should sync up with my Skype contact lists. Define once, update everywhere, always fresh.
- Voice enable facebook chat. TO DO.
- Video enable facebook chat. STARTED (No group video, no screensharing).
- Advertising exchange. Skype has a small but rapidly growing yellow pages business directory, the better for prospects to Skype and SkypeOut your salespeople. Faceskype can cross-sell ads, offer buy-once-and-show-up-everywhere campaigns, improve the sociability and relevance of Skype client ads, offer click-to-call features to Facebook advertisers, etc. TO DO.
- Location check-in sync. Start showing my Facebook Places check-ins in my Skype history and offer to let me check into Facebook Places using mobile Skype. TO DO.
- Workplace editions. Is Facebook’s Yammer-killer just a rumor? Skype is committing to the enterprise too, so both teams should be imagining together. TO DO.
Comcast briefed GigaOm on their new Skype product (720p@30fps webcam, RF remote control, adapter box with HDMI) and an app designed for television, coming early next year. Some integration with your Comcast account for importing contacts. Skype will only partner with Comcast for the next few years, so too bad if you are one of the 81% of customers served by other ISPs. You’ll have to buy a television with Skype inside or dedicate a computer to running Skype on your television.
Licensed family counseling and psychotherapy over Skype. The BC practice says “the new virtual service removes the factor of geographical proximity, and caters to clients who find traditional settings limiting.” Don’t miss your session because you’re in a small town or far from home.
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I agree on nearly all points with Om’s analysis of why Skype is buying GroupMe, why GroupMe picked Skype, and why it isn’t enough for Skype. 
For Skype management, more for the Skype everywhere strategy, it fills a gaping user interaction hole, and brings very active young users in many international markets. Skype’s owners don’t mind; this is equity neutral (Skype cash for GroupMe assets).
For GroupMe investors, this is their liquidity event when markets and economies are as uncertain in the long term as they are volatile day by day. For GroupMe management, they get Microskype marketing power and future replacement of Twilio SMS backend with a cheaper Skype texting/voice/video backend [take that, Twilio!]
Om, I disagree on Skype having a consumer vs. enterprise conflict. They believe technology consumerization will continue smuggling Skype into the workplace.
Skype’s does have two other identity crises. First, are Skype a communications company or will they take a leap into helping people be productive? I don’t think Skype can or will take that leap. The second crisis, are Skype willing to compete as a platform or must Skype control all elements of user experience? This struggle is in play now, as the new managers brought on by the Private Equity partners successfully contained and crippled SkypeKit, Skype’s first platform product in years.
Tony Bates’ blog post, Skype news release, GroupMe announcement.
 Love the announcement about Facebook video chat powered by Skype. Lots of questions not answered. Here are a few. I’ll update with answers as they come in.
- Video calling API from Facebook?
- Video calling on the mobile Facebook app?
- Video calling on mobile browsers?
- Desktop browser compatibility?
- Is the video p2p or does it go through central servers?
- Are these calls subject to CALEA and other forms of lawful intercept?
- Are these calls encrypted?
- Are these calls using WebRTC and other emerging real-time web standards?
- Whose ToS apply?
- Does Skype presence show up as Facebook presence? vice versa?
- Available in all markets? China, where Skype is only supposed to operate through TOM-Skype?
- Rollout plans? Available to all users?
- What new privacy controls apply?
- Are all video calls saved for later replay?
- Can I start a video call and leave a video mail?
- Can we switch from video to voice during a call? At point of answer?
- Do both parties need a webcam for a call to complete?
- Can I video call a Facebook stranger?
- Can a Skype users call a Facebook user who is not a friend?
- Will Skype report Facebook users in the concurrently logged into Skype statistic?
Skype will power fb’s video chat.
“If you are not paying for it,
you’re not the customer;
you’re the product
being sold.”
posted on Metafilter’s
“User-driven discontent” thread
by blue_beetle
at 1:41 PM on August 26, 2010
Facebook’s customers are its advertisers, making Facebook’s users the product sold to advertisers. This creates a tension between the needs of advertisers and the needs of users. Facebook’s success has been walking that line closely and carefully, minimizing the perception of intrusion while aggressively pimping their users to merchants.
Skype’s users paid for SkypeOut and SkypeIn from the start, accounting for 90% of revenue, so Skype’s bottom-line interests were aligned with its users.
Skype’s management slowly eroded that alignment.
Employers. Skype Manager and the Skype for Business desktop client for Windows give your company control over Skype credits, privacy (your manager can see all the SkypeOut calls you make), specific features (your manager can turn off IM or file transfers, for example) and many user preferences (see the Admin guide to Skype).
Advertisers. Skype produces ad revenue through business directory listings, toolbar and web site Click-and-Call ad services, some in-app display ads in the “home” tab, and toolbars. The newest version of Skype for Windows, the 5.3 Beta, now shifts focus away from where you left Skype, pulling you out of context, showing you the latest big advert. You cannot return to your conversations without dismissing the ad, an annoying usability hit.
Distribution Partners. Skype works closely with phone companies and ISPs to promote Skype to their customers. These deals come with strings.
- The Skype mobile app for Verizon came with an exclusivity, hurting US Skype users who weren’t on Verizon’s network.
- Those same versions came CALEA wiretap-ready, making all Skype calls less secure (you can’t know if other Skype users are using a surveillance friendly version).
- Skype’s TOM-Skype partnership in China similarly walked back Skype’s original spyware-free premise in exchange for opening up their largest market; TOM-Skype is free to package Skype software with spyware and malware as ordered/suggested by Chinese government agencies and common business practice.
- Skype lowered call quality for its first Verizon Android apps at Verizon’s insistence.
- Skype’s 3 Skypephone partnership in the UK restricted SkypeOut to international calls, even when domestic SkypeOut rates were cheaper than 3’s.
Developers. Half of eBay’s revenue comes from transactions driven through APIs. Many of Skype’s managers from that era learned that lesson. eBay listens closely to their developer channel, sometimes wrestling over fees, access to customer data, and terms. As Skype’s platform products (embedded, cloud, mobile) reach programmers, Skype will be tempted to meter access, charging for use of its APIs. We haven’t seen Skype choose between developer and user interests. Yet.
Microsoft. This is prospective: Ballmer and Bates committed to building Skype into a range of Microsoft products. Will the Xbox division be Skype’s customer? Or the Xbox players? Live Messenger’s advertisers or Messenger’s users? Bing’s advertisers or Bing’s users?
Skype may never again report its revenue by source, a strong alignment signal. So watch Skype’s behavior. Does Skype serve you over all other others? Or does Skype deserve the high customer scrutiny and alternatives Facebook inspires?
photos cc-by: evan moss, elizabeth stark.
Canada’s own Jim Courtney took a deep dive into the TELUS+Skype deal. Before you leave to read why this is important to the Canadian telco industry and a first for Skype, I have a few notes from Skype PR.
First, the Android software shipping on TELUS’s new LG handset is Skype’s full Android client, not a thin-client. This means high fidelity audio and no wiretap-ready intermediate gateways. This is great.
Aside from coming with Skype pre-installed, what makes the LG Optimus Black a "Skype edition" smartphone? A Skype spokesperson writes: “The Skype edition LG Optimus Black will be the only Skype-branded phone on the Canadian market. It will feature a preloaded Skype icon that connects the user to the Android Market with one touch, where the latest version of Skype for Android can be downloaded. The Skype edition LG Optimus Black also comes complete with an in-box Skype quick-start guide and up to 60 minutes of Skype Credit, so users can begin connecting with the world right away.”
Nicely designed to recruit new users. When will TELUS promote Skype to all its 7 million mobile customers on all its Android phones?
AT&T (née T-Mobile) partnered with Vivox to offer a calling solution for Facebook users.
I think this is courting behavior.
All the dashing young bon-voipants are wooing Facebook, hoping for love and marriage.
Vivox usually partners directly with a platform operator, like game publisher CCP’s Eve Online or Linden Lab’s Second Life. The operator pays for customers to talk with each other for improved in-game experiences. Vivox serves 5 billion minutes monthly like that.
Facebook is being courted by nearly everyone, though. By Skype (even after merger announcement), by the dozen other small-fry calling apps that hope to be bought by Facebook, by internal teams that think they craft a better calling experience and integrate better, by TokBox who believes the future is video chat, and by at least one phone company business unit aspiring to telco2.0 platform status.
What better way to woo than to prove your love? To show what it would be like after the courting is over? The bobsled Vivox app is a display of conviction, a tangible promise of things to come. Sure, Vivox is letting the rich consumer brand pay for the limo, champagne and flowers. But Facebook knows this is Vivox’s romance and that they could have brought anyone to the dance.
Why can Vivox do this?
- Vivox constrains their scope to voice chat. No video. No IM. No presence. No file transfer.
- Vivox centralizes the directory lookup. So session initiation can cross services, bringing a Facebook contact into an Everquest 2 conversation.
- Vivox centralizes media service. Unlike Skype, Vivox runs all calls through their own server cloud. No peer-to-peer media streams.
Among other benefits, Vivox customers offload service availability, scale, capacity planning, and monitoring to Vivox.
Centralization lets Vivox innovate in interesting ways. Care to choose which audio streams a user hears in combat based on proximity to other avatars? Or to spatialize audio left-right based on point of view in the game? Vivox can give you the controls to do that.
Most important, in a case like Facebook, Vivox’s cloud is a snap (well, almost a snap) to integrate with your own platform or enterprise system. You wondered why eBay never managed to integrate Skype into the eBay experience? This is the technology reason: Skype could never offer a web API that eBay’s developers could bake into eBay’s services.
So if Skype is quietly courting Facebook, unlike Vivox’s flourish, what unannounced technologies could Skype bring to the dance?
 I just caught two Asterisk notes. First, Digium CEO Danny Windham boiled down the big Microsoft-Skype story into one headline: Microsoft plus Skype, equals Microsoft. My favorite lines:
What of the potential benefits resulting from plans for Skype integration into Microsoft’s business-class communication products, such as Lync? That remains a mystery, and calls into question the level of commitment that Microsoft will make to open standards and to widespread integration.
Is the acquisition good for Skype? Given the valuation, it’s certainly good for the Skype shareholders. But what about the service itself? In a word, no. History suggests that Microsoft’s tendency towards notoriously proprietary tactics will slow the development of Skype as a business tool. Will Microsoft wall-off Skype from competing products, completely? Or, at a bare minimum will Microsoft ensure their products work much better with Skype than those from competitors? Time will tell.
That was May 13th, the Wednesday after the announcement. Now, eleven days later, some news via email.
Product notification:
Skype for Asterisk will not be available for sale or activation after July 26, 2011.
Skype for Asterisk was developed by Digium in cooperation with Skype. It includes proprietary software from Skype that allows Asterisk to join the Skype network as a native client. Skype has decided not to renew the agreement that permits us to package this proprietary software. Therefore Skype for Asterisk sales and activations will cease on July 26, 2011.
This change should not affect any existing users of Skype for Asterisk. Representatives of Skype have assured us that they will continue to support and maintain the Skype for Asterisk software for a period of two years thereafter, as specified in the agreement with Digium. We expect that users of Skype for Asterisk will be able to continue using their Asterisk systems on the Skype network until at least July 26, 2013. Skype may extend this at their discretion.
Skype for Asterisk remains for sale and activation until July 26, 2011. Please complete any purchases and activations before that date.
Thank you for your business.
Digium Product Management
 I think it’s simple housecleaning on Skype’s part. Skype for Asterisk has little usage, is redundant with existing and future Skype products, and offers no revenue to speak of. Former Skype Journal anchor Jim Courtney IM’d this was probably in the works before the Microsoft deal.
Others worry Skype’s killing SFA is a dark portent of things to come under Microsoft’s ownership. Fred Posner no longer dreams “of a more friendly, open, Skype under Microsoft.” Dan York hears others tweet support for his fear of a new Skype era under Microsoft.
So, Danny, do you think Skype could be much more proprietary and closed under MSFT?
Four stages after Microsoft finishes buying Skype:
1. Review. Skype will rethink all of its alliances, partnerships and lines of business. Are you operating Skype stores? Handling payroll in Europe? Accepting Skype calls in your conference bridge? Microsoft may offer better services internally or have existing contracts at lower rates. You may be asked to rebid and your Skype contacts may change. Again.
2. Anxiety. Skype will change or further abandon its developer platforms, leaving some companies cold. Skype will drop some service partners and suppliers as they find better counterparts within Microsoft’s ecosystem.
3. Exuberance. Skype stats will start to swell. Expect users and usage to double and double again over the next few years as Microsoft sells Skype with Windows, XBox, and business products. Skype’s developer products will ship; Skype for web developers, hardware developers, and desktop developers. You can do more with Skype’s new platforms and Microsoft knows how to treat developers well.
4. Crunch. All this goodness will attract competitors, with low-hanging fruit gone in minutes. A much bigger pond with many bigger fish.
I’m @evanwolf on twitter and evanwolf on Skype.
Also on Skype Journal:
I posted this answer to Quora in February. “Would Facebook pre-IPO stock be worth more if pooled with Skype stock?”
 First off, Facebook doesn’t need to buy Skype to get Skype features in 2011. Skype would be delighted if Facebook drove customers to create Skype accounts and chat/call from within the Facebook mobile apps.
But let’s imagine they are talking about mergers and acquisitions. I’m assuming Skype shareholders would swap Skype shares for Facebook shares. What’s in it for both investors?
For Skype’s investors, they are trading their own shot at an early IPO for a small piece of Facebook’s IPO, giving up control of Skype’s IPO timing and structure.
Skype is the largest company of its kind, continues to grow briskly, has a new management team releasing new products and generating new revenue streams at a brisk pace (2011 should be Skype’s first $billion revenue year), and can rightfully claim they are seizing an unfair share of the trillion dollar telecom industry. Let’s say performance and conditions are good and they value the company at $5B later this year. That’s a relatively quick and sure thing, compared to Facebook. Facebook’s IPO would be an order of magnitude larger, and comes with risks of scale.
Let’s look at it from the other side.
- Would Facebook’s investors be willing to dilute their ownership by another ten percent or so to bring in Skype?
- Would having Skype inside the company make Facebook stock worth another ten percent at IPO? a few years’ after IPO?
- Would Skype become less valuable as a Facebook company or division, lacking the neutrality to partner with other social network sites?
- Are the risks of post-merger business integration problems large enough to threaten the overall perception of the company?
- Would Skype’s we-sell-to-our-users strategy conflict with Facebook’s we-sell-our-users-to-advertisers strategy?
- Is it worth the net risks to keep rivals from buying Skype’s technology and market presence?
While there are some obvious operational synergies (both companies help people talk with each other), and untapped opportunities (enterprise customers, social group video), I can’t see why merging now would offer any advantages to their investors.
Beecher Tuttle speculated Skype bought the assets of group text startup 3Jam. Skype’s texting features are… uninspiring? Hiring 3Jam’s Enlai Chu might fix that. Or is it feature creep?
CallByText compromises Skype security, requiring your Skype name and password, setting you up for identity theft. (Thanks, Hudson)
Reuters reports Google and Facebook talked about buying Skype. They didn’t talk to each other, although that would be interesting. Like this is something new? Skype’s corporate affairs folks must talk to potential buyers, if only to understand a non-IPO deal space.
Transit Telecom screws Brazilian Skype users, cancelling Números Online Skype, using the service since January 2006.
Sony firmware update adds Skype to Bravia TVs.
3CX adds Skype Connect to its Windows PBX software.
Azerbaijan minister wants to ban Skype as a security risk. via Tamada Tales.
Ubergizmo unboxes the Logitech TV Cam for Skype. “At CES 2011, Skype on TV was a huge hit, particularly among seniors. I’ve never seen so many seemingly retired people at CES, and they were almost all excited by this.”
Mumbai police analyze Skype calls to find gangsters.
Australian Skype for Vodafone mobile users will pay $3 monthly for Skype-to-Skype calls. Cheaper than previous plans.
California “elder law” attorneys to bill for Skype consultations. “…legal documents professionally produced in a virtual law firm environment.”
MyChelle Dermaceuticals licensed estheticians to bill for Skype consultations. “MyChelle’s expert team is on-hand to provide professional, effective treatment and skin care recommendations with a custom selection of pure, clean MyChelle Dermaceuticals products.”
Skype’s Skytools framework used to “construct a large fault-tolerant cluster of PostgreSQL.” Hundreds in production. Skytools.
Patch to Skype for Mac zero day vulnerability coming next week.
“The new interface is faster than before, and lets you see more content in the same amount of screen space.” I haven’t seen it in my client but maybe it’ll show up later. What do you think of this Skype art?
Update: I had to restart Skype to see it. First I was asked to reauthorize the Skype app.
I logged in to Facebook and was asked to for permission.
I allowed Skype to do the usual, but with more of my Facebook personal data and social graph.
I get a glimpse of the new tab, just for a second…
and then I get kicked back to authentication.
Maybe I’ll have some luck with it later.
 A new entry level Logitech LifeSize video conferencing system now comes with two points of Skype integration. First, there’s a SkypeKit-based Skype client inside the LifeSize Passport. So you can log in with your Skype account and call or answer people in the Skype network or SkypeOut to phone numbers. Second, your Skype contacts now show up in the Logitech Passport’s directory. Passports will sell for under $2500. Sadly, there are no demos or screenshots. Here are LifeSize’s celebratory news release, the Skype partner page, blog post and Skype’s blog post. I’ll share more info if I get it.
Three observations.
First, SkypeKit must be maturing for this to come out; LifeSize is small enough that they can’t afford product risks with iffy components.
Next, someone at Skype did a yeoman’s job of reviving what must have been a strained relationship after being unable to deliver needed software since 2009. Job well done, team.
Last, having Skype inside your video conferencing system could well become a must-have. The ultimate market reach for 720p interop with a partner that won’t muscle into your market (cough-cisco-cough).
Dave Michels at No Jitter offers more context on this announcement. “It had appeared none of the enterprise video players were ready to acknowledge Skype (yet), and that’s why this announcement is so significant.”
Want to show Facebook you’re partner material? Get your app into Facebook’s top-ten.
Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger app for Facebook has been growing steadily in use and adoption. 14.5 million daily average users, 17.3 million monthly uniques. Frankly, that’s about one tenth of Skype’s activity. What’s meaningful is that this is just the share of WLM activity within Facebook.
If I’m Facebook, I want users to spend more time on my site (world domination) so I can sell their attention to advertisers (ARPU).
If this works for WLM users, why not GTalk, Yahoo!, Tencent, and Skype users? As a hub, Facebook can offer other networks more IM activity with Facebook social objects (those things we chat about). As a hub, Facebook can offer two great advantages to users: access to more of their contacts and network independence.
Where does Skype fit in?
- Skype will get its private gateways beefed up so Skype IM can flow across the Facebook message hub.
- The industry is begging for a Rich Presence Roadmap summit, so presence becomes more useful, not less, with proliferation of devices and partners. Skype me, I’d be glad to host.
- Skype’s user experience folks should start prototyping how to present people search, presence, profiles, and descriptions of access points for “alien” users. This is a hunt for metaphors; I’d start with twitter’s “via” attribute.
- These networks are not the same, so not all features are available everywhere. For example, Skype lets you edit an IM message and send IM even when the person is offline. A list of services provided by each partner would let the clients constrain user behavior to what is possible, and to provide appropriate informational messages.
- Skype Live for the browser. Voice, video, desktop sharing, conferencing, etc. Skype’s best opportunity to differentiate among the other IM networks.
- SkypeKit mobile. I know that’s asking a lot, but the app world would love to easily build Skype features into their mobile apps. And Facebook mobile will want to be a full client in Facebook’s hub.
What am I missing?
Just finished watching David Gurlé’s keynote at the Spring 2011 Enterprise Connect.
- Skype partners with Citrix GoToMeeting. Launch GTM sessions from group chats and contact groups. FUD-ware, delivery sometime later this year. No details on pricing, contracts, etc.
- Still partnering with Avaya; video customer service on the roadmap.
- Skype will host supernodes at topologically useful locations so enterprises don’t have to. p2p improved.
- Skype learned it is mission critical from the December 2010 outage and is investing millions improving Skype’s reliability.
- Skype is offering customer service to the enterprise in multiple languages and SLAs.
- Skype.com automated back office features to streamline business signup, credit approval, provisioning.
 Skype is positioning itself as an “overlay” service in the enterprise, building on existing infrastructure, business process and data. Just like Box.net, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Salesforce (see slide at right.)- Gurlé talked of “The Living Workplace.” I didn’t understand the idea behind this. Remote work? Consumerization of technology? Hosted Internet apps?
Observations:
- Citrix is great but partnering with Citrix is wrong headed. Skype should be opening up the client so every vendor can build their own extension. That way users and their employers can not only have the best of breed from any vendor, they can build their own to use enterprise-built or custom services.
- Glad to learn more about the network architecture improvements. One downside: continued hosting of Skype supernodes means more points for government surveillance and litigation discovery.
- Skype is still not addressing the many key issues regarding digital identity, making Skype use awkward in the workplace.
#EnterpriseCon twitter feed.
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7 years and 2 days since Skype Journal launched as a stand-alone blog.
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ex Wilhelm: “Microsoft is a major player in the Business Software Alliance, along with Apple and 27 other companies. And the BSA supports SOPA.” Learn more and do more to prevent the Internet Blacklist laws.
Join the Skype 6.X Text Chat Room