Star Trek : The Continuing Mission : Learning Curve

Just in time for Halloween, Learning Curve is out, the third episode of Star Trek: The Continuing Mission. Written by Andy Tyrer, "on the shakedown cruise of the newly refitted USS Montana, the ship is attacked without provocation by a heavily armed unknown vessel. Captain Edwards and the crew of the Montana must defend themselves and come to grips with 24th century technology or face certain destruction."

Executive Producers Andy Tyrer and Sebastian Prooth use Skype for ST:TCM's production, pulling together this audio adventure with cast and crew from Europe and the Americas.

Download episode 3 (42 minutes, 57MB) or its short trailer for your iPod or mp3 player.

CAST:

Captain Paul Edwards (Tim Renshaw), Commander Darius Locke (Stephen Perkins) Lt. Commander Thomas Plummer (Brian Bonner), Lt. Commander McGuire (Patrick McCray), Lt. Commander Kyle Wilson (Gabriel Diani), Lt. Stephen Knight (Scott Martineck), Ensign Susan Palmer (Etta Devine), Lt. Numi Natukov (Tiffany Tallent), Lt. Meechum (Matt Adams), Telara (Corinne Tandy), Lt. Michaels (Craig Clayton), Alien Leader (Andy Tyrer), Captain Pelmon (Sebastian Prooth), Doctor Richard Plummer (Brian Bonner), Ships Computer Voice (Cheralyn Lambeth).

DIRECTORS: Sebastian Prooth and Patrick McCray
SOUND DESIGNERS: Andy Tyrer and Tim Renshaw
ARTWORK: Andy Tyrer

tags: skype, star trek, sttcm, mptheater, drama, scifi, science fiction, workflow, entertainment, collaboration, commmunication, radio, conferencing, continuing mission

Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype.
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See also:

• Skype connects cast and crew of Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, November 2007
• The Continuing Mission Launched: Fueled by Skype, January 2008
• Star Trek: The Continuing Mission. Episode 2: Integration, September 2008

P.S. I'd have loved appointment listening, narrowcasting Star Trek: The Continuing Mission episodes in Skypecasts rooms with the built in back channel.

Letter to the Editor - Reconsider Skypecasts

August 27, 2008.

To whom it may concern.

It appears Skype has decided to end all SkypeCast as of September 1, 2008.

Skype we believe is an International Company owned by EBay.

We your clients, and supporters of your company, are devastated by your decision to stop SkypeCasts.

This action, has been a decision that will affect your standing in the industry; simply put it is a terrible decision that affects millions.

Letters are already being sent to the International Press and Television stations and Radio stations.

We your supporters and clients feel very strongly about this terrible decision.

In USA we the people are contacting our Congressman and our Senators, this decision by your company has affected millions of people in this country, and many other countries.

Your supporters feel this action, is one which should be reconsidered by your board of directors and your President and CEO. 

Your Skype published statement, makes a comment, that you are sorry for this inconvenience, that this may cause your clients using SkypeCast.

Surely there must have been an error in judgment in contemplating this action.

Inconvenience is not the description that should have been used; this is a disaster of international importance.

Many students as of this moment are using SkypeCast to teach the skill of English reading and speaking.

We have listed some of the countries from which our students have come to participate in this project.

More than 50 different countries supply students for this particular project.

Algeria, France, Germany, Spain, Columbia, Mexico, Albania, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia, Africa, Finland, Denmark, Morocco, Holland, Australia, Austria, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Albania, Turkey,  Philippines, China, Moldavia, Egypt, Poland, South Korea, Poland, Finland, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Brazil, Thailand, Canada, Indonesia, Belgium, Peru, Libya, Vietnam, Hungary, Taiwan, Switzerland, Venezuela, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Qatar, United Kingdom.

Personally as an English Teacher I and other co-teachers have instructed 651 students in a SkypeCast called English Lessons.

Involved in this English Lessons project which started in January 2008 and involved five hours of instruction every day.

Thanks to the dedication of many people, which included a host from Indonesia , teachers from Brazil , Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, China, United Kingdom, Poland, U.S.A., Bavaria, Germany, Greece, Australia.

Our project and the people involved are devastated.

Sincerely

English Lessons   jwhite6787@msn.com

See also:

• Skypecasts home page
• Goodnight Skypecasts, Peter Parkes, 26 August 2008
• Some more on Skypecasts, Peter Parkes, 28 August 2008
• Alternatives to Skypecasts, Jim Courtney, 29 August 2008

tags: skype, skypecasts, skypecasting, skypecast, community

Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype.

Alternatives to Skypecasts

While there has been lots of dismay about the discontinuation of Skypecasts (Skype's blog posts: here and here), it had appeared for the past several months that the service just did not have the robustness to provide the reliability and quality of service that users would expect. Being a free service, it was obviously placing resource demands with zero revenue potential on Skype developer and support personnel that hopefully can be diverted to bringing feature equality to Skype's basic service, whether on Windows, Mac or Linux.
There are alternatives; in fact, this decision provides a unique opportunity for two third party conference calling services:

1. Skype Multi-Party Calling:

For up to 25 participants on a call, Skype has recently expanded its multi-party calling capacity. The caveat here is that the host must use a multi-core Windows PC and a reliable broadband internet connection (preferably cable). Participants can be on any version of Skype or be accessed via SkypeOut. In this case the host must set up the call and call out to all the participants. More details here. A unique feature of Skype's multi-party calling is its ability to show which participant is actually speaking at any given time. But keep in mind Skype really offers multi-party calling, not a full conferencing service.
2. iotum CalliFlower
iotum's CalliFlower has the benefit of no charge other than whatever it costs to make the connection to one of their access points. I often participate in their daily SquawkBox call via my SkypeOut account; the recent availability of SkypeOut CallerID, displaying my mobile phone number when I make a SkypeOut call, has allowed me to participate in these calls within my SkypeOut subscription without even using the provided password for each call. In fact, there are four options for accessing these calls:

1. Truphone VoIP: A PC, a headset and an internet connection puts you one click away from your conference call.
2. Phone: Dial from anywhere in the world to one of our U.S. or French dial-in numbers to get connected.
3. Skype: Call our U.S. dial-in number from within the Skype network, and get high quality audio.
4. Sitofono call back: Enter your phone number and get called back for free in more than 12 countries

SquawkBox participants regularly call in from the U.S., Canada and U.K. but there is really no country-specific limitation The real gem of CalliFlower is the web-based user interface where participants can see who is on the call, raise a hand, enter text on a "wall". The host can record the call for later playback, mute/unmute participants as well as set up the call, invite participants via email and SMS, and put up the subsequent recording.

As an example of building communities, iotum has worked with Alan Hunkin to provide a weekly interview session, CalliFlower Communiques, with notable personalities such as William Shatner. Immediate future guests include Ken Blanchard, author of "Being a One Minute Entrepreneur" and actor Alan Alda discussions his recent memoir "Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself." Recordings of previous sessions are available at the page linked above.
3. HiDef Conferencing
Vapps' HiDef Conferencing (formerly HiSpeedConferencing) provides high definition (HD) voice quality calls for participants accessing via Skype. Their business grade service involves fixed rate monthly hosting subscriptions involving unlimited Skype access, dial-in to specific numbers in several countries and toll-free numbers. Obviously this involves some ongoing expense to the host but their infrastructure supports providing the best possible voice quality, depending on access mode. The host uses their web controls to set up calls, manage call participants as well as record and archive calls.
Looking at the options it appears the best conference experience comes when:

• hosts are able to setup and fully manage the calls, including an open access invitation;
• users can participate through a web-based experience not only via voice but also via chat.

The good news is that Skype provides either free or low cost unlimited access to any of these services. What will be most interesting is to see if iotum and/or Vapps rise to the opportunity here and and is able to provide encouragement to the many communities that were supported by Skypecasts.
Tags: Skype, Skypecast, iotum, CalliFlower, Hi Def Conferencing, CalliFlower Communique, Vapps, multi-party calling, Alan Hunkin

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