Social sharing through sites like Facebook and Twitter has seen meteoric rise in the last year. Exciting as that may be, it only scratches the surface of what social sharing can mean on the Web. In this talk, Jonathan Rosenberg will explore the next phase of social sharing - real-time communications using voice and video. Through it, a whole new set of online interaction models open up for Web publishers, going well beyond the mere posting of links on walls and in tweets. Jonathan will detail several potential use cases to see how they can drive increased value for users and content providers alike. [emphasis mine.]
Speculating madly, dear reader, what will Rosenberg announce?
Skype voice and video conferencing you can embed in web sites (like bloggers embed YouTube videos).
A Skype platform you can build into mobile, desktop and web apps.
Live voice/video conversations you can attach to threads of textual conversation in mailing lists and blogs.
Skype conversations you can trigger through links in social media, a la bit.ly.
Syndicating your Skype conversations and activities through RSS, Atom, and ActivityStream feeds that can be consumed by sites and news readers.
Hosting recordings of your Skype conversations for discussion and sharing a la Facebook and YouTube.
Anything less will disappoint.
Frankly, I'd love for Skype to publish user behavior as an activity stream that can be consumed by other systems. Beyond online/offline/availability presence, let me show friend/follow/block, chat room join/leave, conference call join/leave, mood changes, profile updates, contact group updates, and my other in-Skype activity. If you're in San Francisco this weekend, join MySpace, Google, Ericsson, Facebook, Microsoft and me at StreamCamp.
Verizon's go-to-market teams had Skype in place last week.
Employees were oriented. Six months' ago these same employees had never tried Skype. Now they know a few talking points.
Demo Blackberry and Android phones had Skype installed and easy to find
Local test accounts with contacts were created for each demo phone
Information cards for the phones were updated with Skype listed as a feature of each phone (right above Bluetooth!)
A small Skype sign was with the phones
The in-store phone selector software now lists Skype as one feature among many.
Inventory comes with a shortcut to install the latest version of Skype mobile for Verizon, a thin client.
Seven things to improve:
Preload the whole Skype client, not just a download link. Conversion rates are much higher with a full preload.
International positioning. "Call your family" in Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, Korean, Ethiopian and Portuguese (my neighborhood) on store-front posters.
Unbury Skype. Show Skype on the first page in the phone selector.
Enroll. "What Skype name would you like to use with your new phone?" in the check-out procedure.
Top up. Accept payments for Skype credits in the store.
Educate. Data sheets and flyers for customers to take, explaining Skype, Skype mobile, Skype To Go, Calling Plans, and how Skype mobile is different from Skype on PCs or iSkype.
Front of store posters showing video calling (whoops, not this year)
Great rollout to the company-owned stores. Now to check the reseller channel.
SKYPE MOBILE FOR VERIZON WIRELESS AVAILABLE THURSDAY Companies Deliver Expansive Global Calling Community and Free Skype-to-Skype Calls on the Most Reliable Wireless Network in the United States
LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg; LAS VEGAS and BASKING RIDGE, N.J., United States – (Virtual Press Office) - From CTIA WIRELESS 2010® in Las Vegas, Verizon Wireless and Skype today announced Skype mobile™ will be available this Thursday, March 25, starting with nine Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones. Skype mobile uses the Verizon Wireless voice network for the wireless connection of the Skype-to-Skype calls, providing Verizon Wireless customers with a superior experience and top-notch call quality.
Beginning Thursday, new and existing Verizon Wireless customers with Android 3G smartphones and BlackBerry 3G smartphones can get Skype mobile in a number of ways. Visit www.verizonwireless.com/skypemobile or www.skype.com/go/mobile from a PC to enter the mobile phone number to receive a text message with a link to the application. Verizon Wireless customers can also text “SKYPE” to 2255 to receive the link. In addition, Android customers will be able to download the app from Android Market™. New BlackBerry customers will find the application on their 3G smartphones’ home screens in the Downloads folder when activated.
Skype mobile gives Verizon Wireless 3G smartphone users with data plans a simple new way to stay in touch with friends, family and business colleagues around the corner and around the world while on Verizon Wireless’ network. Skype mobile users can:
make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype contact around the globe;
send and receive unlimited instant messages with other Skype users;
manage the Skype contact list directly from the mobile application; and
call international phone numbers at competitive Skype calling rates.
John Harrobin, senior vice president of digital media and marketing, noted, “Skype mobile will change the way mobile consumers in the United States make and receive calls. With an ‘always on’ capability, Skype mobile on your 3G smartphone means you never have to miss a call or make an appointment to connect with Skype users around the world. With Skype mobile, we’re untethering Skype users from their PCs and enabling them to stay connected – on the best wireless network in the country.”
Russ Shaw, general manager of Mobile for Skype, noted, “Skype mobile will deliver an unparalleled experience for Verizon Wireless customers. It will be the best way to enjoy unlimited conversations with Skype contacts all over the world at no extra cost. In addition, Skype mobile will allow people to easily and inexpensively make calls to landlines and mobiles abroad at Skype rates.”
Customers need a Verizon Wireless smartphone and data plan to use Skype mobile. Skype-to-Skype calls will not be charged against their monthly minute allowances or data plans. Verizon Wireless customers can visit www.skype.com to purchase Skype Credit to make Skype Out calls and make calls to international landline or mobile numbers.
Skype and Verizon Wireless have been working together to create this application specifically for Verizon Wireless customers and to take advantage of the most reliable wireless network in the United States.
Skype mobile will be available initially on millions of best-selling Verizon Wireless 3G smartphones, including the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, Storm2™ 9550, Curve™ 8330, Curve™ 8530, 8830 World Edition, and Tour™ 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS™ by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR™.
Here's the Say It Visually! whiteboard guide to Skype mobile on Verizon Wireless phones. Positioned as freeing you from your PC (the way, um, mobile phones do). Bonus points for unlimited Skype-to-Skype calling from your phone with your flat rate Verizon data plan. On YouTube.
Verizon Wireless And Skype To Unveil Skype mobile At CTIA WIRELESS 2010 In Las Vegas
03/22/2010
WHO:
Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless provider in the United States, and Skype, the company with the software that enables the world’s conversations
WHAT:
Verizon Wireless and Skype will hold a news conference during CTIA WIRELESS 2010® to unveil Skype mobile™. Speakers will include:
John Harrobin, senior vice president of digital media and marketing, Verizon Wireless
Russ Shaw, general manager of Mobile, Skype
WHERE:
CTIA Press Conference Room: Room N241 – North Hall
Las Vegas Convention Center
3150 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, Nevada 89109
WHEN:
12:00 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, March 23, 2010
To listen to a teleconference of the news conference, participants may call: 877-883-4690 (United States and Canada) +1 706-758-5386 (international)
Conference ID: 64218465
About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable and largest wireless voice and 3G data network, serving more than 91 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 83,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.
About Skype
Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Every day, people everywhere also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. Download Skype to your computer or mobile phone at skype.com.
Team voice chat is now a commodity, a feature you can buy/rent for your game from companies like GameSpy.
Players of team games don't like in-game voice chat.
They want to talk with teammates outside of the game before team play (planning, coordination, training) and after (after-action reports, peer feedback).
They want to keep their group together independent of a game service. They want the freedom to take their clan/tribe/friends to another world/network.
They like the ownership and control Ventrilo offers but don't want its inconvenience and cost.
Nobody in GDC's "audio track" is discussing voice chat. They care about designing a game's sounds and score and how to integrate them into the product and the gaming experience.
Facebook and asynchronous gameplay have everyone's attention. AAA games are too expensive and slow-to-market unless you are very well funded. "Social games" cost less and make it easier to diversify, experiment and learn from your customers.
Interoperability among games and player data portability are not interesting here. I wonder if activity streams might find some fans.
Scarce talent? Producers with game experience. Recruiters settle for product managers from non-game software companies and try to reshape them for the game culture. I can't believe CAA doesn't have a practice to represent senior and up-and-coming game talent. By the way, this is a relatively new problem; five years' ago the hunt was for technical and storytelling talent.
Auteurs seem to be the hub of studios and publishers collect them, steal them, and shore up their weaknesses.
Game studios assemble teams for each stage in a game's life cycle, staffing up and moving people out as needed. The kind of project culture you see in civil engineering and Hollywood.
All the bigger live game companies are building deep pools of knowledge about player behavior, psychology, and how designs affect both. Deep and secret pools of knowledge.
Hallway talk is nearly always better than the presentations. Companies compete with secret technologies, designs, and features. This means they only share widely known history and practices. Insights are sparse.
Apple's iPad is droolworthy for game developers. Designers are imagining much richer mobile experiences than can fit on a phone's screen.
Publishers confront a difficult and costly tradeoff. How do you make each game for every kind of device and user location (iPhone, iPad, PC, Wii, PSP, Xbox, SMS, television, etc.) with a consistent feel and identity while somehow adapting the experience to the strengths and limits of each platform and adding incentives to play across multiple modes? Resources are finite.
The Startup Bus to SXSW Interactive 2010 is now rolling south by southeast. "12 strangers will board a bus in San Francisco. At 60 miles an hour and over 48 hours, they will conceive, build and launch 3 tech startups in time for a SXSW party in Austin." Can you bootstrap a company and squeeze in a decent portability policy? The Bus startups will try. The DataPortability Project wants to make your site's portability policy an impulse buy but your company lawyers and designers will want more time.
This is your promise to have a signed-off portability policy posted by a deadline. Model language:
On behalf of THIS ORGANIZATION operating THIS SITE we promise to post a complete Portability Policy on this page by 1 July 2010. We will be terribly embarrassed if we don't.
Like a Privacy Policy, our Portability Policy will explain your rights, in this case your rights to access, share, synchronize, delete and backup your data with our services.
We'll also explain our responsibilities and how to work with us to improve your portability experience.
We're working with DataPortability.org to create a useful policy. Learn more HERE.
We believe we can do more for you by responsibly sharing your data with services you trust.
We support these Portability Principles:
It should be easy to bring your identity, friends, files and history with you to our site.
It should be just as easy to share them from our site with other sites.
We should make it easy to keep your information fresh with updates.
We will be considerate with your data when our relationship ends.
We will be explicit and transparent about our portability practices.
If you'd like to discuss your portability rights with us, join us in this forum HERE.
2. Draft your portability policy.
Your policy will/should go through lawyers. It's part of you site's Terms of Service, End User License Agreement, or whatever contract connects you with your site's users.
This draft is what you'll give your lawyer.
The parts:
2.A. Welcome to our portability policy.
2.B. Our disclosures
2.C. How to talk with us about this
2.D. Cautions and other limits
2.A. Welcome to our portability policy.
This document is...
You'll explain what this document is, what it is called.
We're writing it so...
Say the purpose, what's inside, what's not inside.
We hope you get out of it...
Takeaways and benefits for users who read this and when to come back and read it in more depth.
2.B. Our disclosures
This is the body of your portability policy. You'll answer questions, grouped into five categories (Start, Sync, Access, Share, End). While the questions can be answered briefly with yes/no and multiple choice answers, it may take more time to provide the optional descriptions that explain your answers.
You'll want a place to let customers ask data portability policy questions, for you to make announcements, conduct surveys, etc. Something like GetSatisfaction or UserVoice. You'll link here from your portability policy page.
4. Post Your Pledge
The default file name: portabilitypolicy.html
Popular locations: Root. Acme.com/portabilitypolicy.html
Link to your portability policy on every page where you link to your privacy policy. "Portability" or "Portability Policy".
We'll have a form for you to list your policy on the dataportability.org site.
How well do you welcome me, my history, my friends?
1. Are your import and export APIs and formats documented?
Yes
No
Suggested: If Yes,where are they documented?
2. Do people need to create a new identity for this site, or can they use an existing one?
New Identity - The person is expected to create a fresh identity that is used on this site. This site does not trust a third party to authenticate identity.
Existing Identity - The person can register an account that is accessed using an identity authenticated by some third party. This product assumes that, by selecting a third party to authenticate their identity, the person accepts that third party as trustworthy.
Suggested: If Existing Identity, what identity services will you support?
Sync.
How do you keep my data fresh?
3. Must people import things into this product, or can the product refer to things stored someplace else? Can this product work with objects and information whose "authoritative home" is another product, or can this product only work with things that it hosts directly?
Must Host - In order for this product to work with a thing, it must be hosted directly.
Can Refer - This product has the ability to access and work with things that are hosted by third parties, assuming that the third party allows this.
Suggested: If Can Refer, what items can be stored elsewhere and under what conditions?
4. Can this site accept updates that users make on other sites? In cases where the product tracks or manages things that the person has stored on some third party product, can this product watch the third party for updates?
One Time Import - This product only sees the remote thing at import time, and does not watch for changes.
Watch For Updates - This product watches the third party for changes, and updates its own view of the remote thing to match.
Suggested: If Yes, what types of items and under what conditions?
Access.
How well do you help me use and manage my information?
5. Can the person allow other sites to use the things they've created or updated here? Does this product provide a way for third parties to authenticate a person and read or write?
No Access - The person must use this product to read or access whatever it manages.
Third Parties Can Read - The person can provide the third party with authentication credentials, and can read data managed by this product.
Third Parties Can Write - The person can provide the third party with authentication credentials, and can write data managed by this product.
Suggested: If Yes, what technical protocols are supported and how can users manage the authority they give other sites?
6. Can the person download or remotely access a copy of everything they've provided to this service? As part of their standard use of most products, people import or create things. Does this product provide an open, DRM-free way for people to retrieve or access via third party all of the things they've created or provided?
No Access - This product does not offer the person the ability to download the things they've provided.
Remote Access - The product provides an open, DRM-free way for people to download all of the things they've provided to the product, or remotely access it using a third party product.
Suggested: If Yes, how and in what forms?
7. Do you disclose where my data is being kept in the real world?
Yes
No
Suggested: If Yes, where can I learn where my data is kept?
8. Can I control where my data is kept in the real world?
Yes
No
Suggested: If Yes, how can I exercise those controls?
Share.
How well do you help me share well with others?
9. If a person updates something here, is that change stored only by this product or can the person ask this product to store it elsewhere? Can this product accept some other site as being the authoritative home of a thing it knows about?
Must Be Authoritative - This product assumes that it is the authoritative home of all things it manages, and does not update third parties.
Can Update Remote - This product can work with a third party that is assumed to be authoritative. All updates made by the person using this product are also forwarded to the third party.
Suggested: If Yes, how does it work in practice?
10. Can the person download or remotely access information that others have provided to the product? In cases where the product allows download or remote access, can the person export or access all of the data to which they have access, or only data which they have directly created?
Provider Only - This person may only export or access data which they have directly provided.
Full Access - The person may export or download any data to which they have access on this product, subject to reasonable usage and abuse rules.
Suggested: If Yes, how and in what forms and with what other services or protocols?
End.
How well do you support a graceful exit from our relationship?
11. Will this site delete an account and all associated data upon a user's request? If the user creates a password or account for use with this product, does the product provide a way to cancel the account and erase all data associated with it?
Immortal Accounts - Accounts or passwords, once created, are assumed to live for as long as the product is available. Desktop applications and other stand-alone products that do not have host services may have no way to remotely revoke accounts or passwords.
Data Expires - If this product acts as a hub, the data it copies from other sites will expire in a set amount of time. This product must be linked to a place where it can refresh or synchronize data in order to stay current.
Accounts Deleted Upon Request - This product has the ability to remove a person's account and all relevant data, and will do so when requested by the person or third party with appropriate legal standing.
Suggested: If Yes, where can I find the procedure to request deletion.
12. Do you give notice before terminating the account?
Yes
No
Suggested: If Yes, how much notice do you give and in what forms?
13. Can you recover a terminated account?
Yes
No
Suggested: If Yes, how thoroughly, under what conditions, how quickly, and how is recovery triggered?
14. Do you have a posted appeals process or dispute resolution procedure?
Yes
No
Suggested: If Yes, where are the procedures posted?
###
As you fill this out:
Would you have designed your service differently if you read the Portability Pledge beforehand?
Do you really need the pledge or are you ready to write a full portability policy before Austin?
When we started BridgePort Networks (acquired by my current employer CounterPath), we knew the fixed-line voice services was starting to undergo a decline and mobile services would grow rapidly (over 4.6B users today). We also knew that pricing pressure would start to decrease margins for mobile operators. What we really did not understand fully at the time was what Skype’s role would be in the dismantling of the Telecommunications value chain and ecosystem. How could we? Skype was just starting and the impact was marginally at first. We did believe Skype would be a catalyst for Operators to take notice-but we were incorrect. In fact many of the executive leadership of Fixed Line and Mobile Operators that I met with back in 2004 saw Skype as a “Gnat” buzzing around the Telecommunications sector. They disregarded the threat at large. Well, we all know that Skype become much more than that. According the the latest figures from TeleGeography Research, Skype now represents approximately 12% of International Long Distance.
The article also points out that Skype-to-Skype calling has grown dramatically: 51% (2008) and 63% (2009). Couple this with the steady growth of the concurrent number of Skype users online and it would seem that Skype is methodically and systematically eroding (Fixed Line) Operator revenues. Check out this chart from Skype Journal on concurrent online users:
So what does this mean from a revenue perspective? The Skype Journal also posted some incredible stats on the arbitrage impact:
The net impact is approximately $13B (yes with a big “B”) of revenue up in smoke in 2009 for Fixed Line Operators worldwide. Given Skype’s momentum, it looks like that number will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
Given that quantitative data above, let’s consider the qualitative + my speculation of the future impact of Skype:
First, it is clear that Skype had set its crosshairs on the ailing Fixed Line Operators first. The numbers above prove this. Skype will continue this route since the Fixed Line Operators really have no choice given that they are also being attacked by the Mobile Operators via Fixed Mobile Substitution (Source: SD&P Internal Analysis):
In addition note the only saving growth service for fixed operators is Broadband-a key enabler for Skype. So the net-net is Skype will retain the upper hand against the fixed line operators.
Second, we are in the midst of Skype attacking the mobile operators. Leveraging MobileVoIP, Skype is working across multiple mobile OSs and devices. Even more Mobile Operators are opening up their networks to allow MobileVoIP applications to work over mobile data channels. This is a big shift for Mobile Operators. This puts ~80% (Voice) revenue at risk. This week it is expected at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain it is expected that Verizon Wireless and Skype will announce a formal relationship to enable Skype over the Verizon Wireless network as well. Look to FT/Orange, Vodafone and Telefónica to do the same. This is good news for users, but fast forward 4-5 years and I see the Mobile Operators going through similar pains as the Fixed Line Operators: losing voice revenue to data pipe enabled VoIP apps. This is one of the reasons I believe Mobile Operators are ditching the all-you-can-eat mobile data plans.
Third, look for Skype to move into the Enterprise in a big way. There is Skype for Business today (i.e., Skype trunking service), but I envision a Skype PBX Client on the desktop removing the need for a premise based PBX. This will help give Skype its leadership position across consumer and Enterprise.
Fourth, Skype as the total Communications Portal. Skype will knit together their consumer and Enterprise offers to create a single network, single platform experience mashing up different communications users with multimedia and collaboration services. Think about a Skype user context switching their personal and work personas.
Since its inception Skype’s theme has been world domination (i.e., via steps outlined above). Here is the good news for traditional Fixed Line and Mobile Operators: CounterPath sells the products and technology to fight the Skype threat. CounterPath’s FMC and Softphone products are flexible, feature rich and customizable to any Operator environment.
One thing is for sure, 2010 will be an exciting year for the Telecommunications sector! Look forward to the battle.
Skype trunking lets your phone system dial out through the Skype network at SkypeOut rates. Now that Skype trunking products are shipping for legacy PBXs (see VoSKY's SMB gateways), Asterisk-based switches, and some Cisco, ShoreTel, and SIPfoundry PBXs, what will Skype do for the VoIP hardware and service distribution channels? When will Avaya, Nortel, Mitel, NEC and others offer Skype trunking? What does the channel need from Skype? Can Skype offer the channel meaningful commissions?
Have the hundreds of millions of Skype customers changed consumer expectations for all audio quality? Is Skype driving demand for HD telephony? What barriers remain to upgrading the mobile and enterprise networks to HD audio?
On the regulatory front, is Skype's appeal for net neutrality, for an open Internet, for equal access getting any support with the VoIP industry? The VoIP industry serves incumbent telcos and opposes their political agenda at great risk. Can Skype frame its issues to earn mindshare at ITExpo East?
Skype is sponsoring the email stations. Or should we call them Skype stations? This one was in the Venetian around the corner from the press room.
Nicely done. Useful to attendees (Vonage sponsored free phone call booths in the past). Visible and memorable. Presumably low cost.
Skype has a much lower footprint at this CES than before. No eBay booth, no lavish parties, no press conference, no sponsored VIP zone. They're taking meetings and will be reporting from the show floor for the Skype blog.
[Adam] Anders and his partner in Sweden, super-producer Peer Astrom (Celine Dion, Madonna), work on an intense timeline, with about seven days from music approval to show taping to producing songs. Their teams work across time zones, around the clock, arranging, tracking and mixing — multitasking to produce up to 11 songs in a single week. “We use the time change to our advantage, so when I go to bed he keeps working, and vice versa — basically, 24 hours a day, six days a week,” says Anders.
The team communicates via Skype and transfers files over the Internet. “At one point, I had three studios in Sweden going, I had three here and one in New York, at the same time,” says Anders, who records vocals at Chalice in Los Angeles. “I'm recording, then checking in every half hour on Skype, with all of the other things going on at the same time. It's pretty crazy.
Our worldwide creative classfollows the sun the way large companies position teams across the globe. Unlike large institutions, creatives assembles their teams as needed, through personal and professional connections.
The user interface is very similar to the ASUS video phone. I'll have more for you from CES tomorrow. For now, here's their blog post, the @skypeonyourtv twitter page, and text from Skype's news release:
Skype-enabled Televisions
Skype is already renowned for popularizing video calling and bringing people closer together through rich, real-time communication. With Skype embedded into Internet-connected HDTVs, the company is creating a new experience that will allow people to communicate from the comfort of their living rooms.
The new HDTVs will deliver familiar Skype features including:
Free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls
Calls to landline or mobile phones at Skype’s low rates
The option to receive inbound calls via a user’s online Skype number
Skype voicemail, if it is set up
Being invited to participate in voice conference calls with up to 24 other parties
Support for up to 720p HD video calls, depending on the availability of high-speed broadband
and a HD webcam
At CES, Skype announced partnerships with LG and Panasonic to offer Skype–enabled HDTVs. Skype software will be embedded into Panasonic’s line of 2010 VIERA CAST-enabled HDTVs and LG’s 26 new LCD and plasma HDTVs with NetCast Entertainment Access™. Both lines are expected to be available in mid-2010. Both LG and Panasonic will offer specially-designed HD webcams that are optimized for Skype video calls as separate accessories that can be plugged into the televisions.
These webcams support 720p HD and include special microphones and optics that can pick up sound and video from a couch-distance.
“The popularity of Skype video calling has increased substantially in recent years with an average of 34% of Skype-to-Skype calls now including video,” added Silverman. “For many people who are video calling on Skype, they have expressed a desire to communicate with their friends and family from somewhere comfortable, and preferably on a big screen. Logically, this led to the development of Skype embedded on HDTVs.”
Skype recommends uninterrupted high-speed broadband of at least 1 Mbps symmetrical bandwidth to achieve 720p HD-quality video calls on either a PC or television.
For more information about Skype-enabled televisions, please visit skype.com/go/TV or view a demonstration during CES at the Panasonic (Central 9405) or LG (Central 8205) booths.
The good news: Skype for Windows 4.2 Beta will triple your screen resolution from High Quality 640x480 to 720p HD 1280 x 720. Download the Beta now (full install). You'll need a 1 Mbps connection between the two callers. You'll also need a new HD webcam and PC with a 1.8 GHz dual-core processor.
The bad news in three parts:
First, it's just for Windows now. No word on when the Mac or Linux versions will support HD.
Second, HD webcams that will support Skype HD video aren't shipping. The first ones will ship in March from faceVsion (the FV TouchCam N1) and from Skype's close partner, In Store Solutions (Freetalk HD PRO and Freetalk HD PRO PLUS). They will be available through Skype.com.
Last, Skype has not published open specifications for webcam manufacturers, explaining how to design for and integrate with Skype. So hundreds of webcam makers won't be able to meet public demand from Skype users. It's still who-you-know business at Skype.
faceVsion will offer demos of its upcoming webcams at the Palazzo during CES.
"Ready, Set, Pitch" your startup at StartupCamp Telephony Edition (#SCT)Thursday, January 21, 2010 from 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM, Miami Beach, Florida. "Five startups will be selected to give brief 5-minute “pitch” presentations following which the panel and audience will ask questions, and provide 5-10 minutes of valuable feedback. Early stage companies wishing to be included in the pitch roster should [apply to present]." Participation is free.
When I think of my community, where I belong professionally, I find my peeps highly concentrated in two places: The Emerging Communications Conferences and last week's Supernova Conference, #sn09. Collaboration and realtime communication was the topic during a panel discussion on day three. Dr. Weinberger brought the conversation through qualitative changes due to speed, brevity, and engagement; and collaboration norms within vertical subcultures. Side note: Skype wasn't mentioned once. Here's the video, my play-by-play notes, and my observations.
Jason Shellen (CEO of Thing Labs, founding product manager of Google Reader, Blogger.com)
Notes: [paraphrased unless quoted]
David: What's different about today's tools?
Laura: Speed of interaction.
Deb: Ubiquity. Filtering leads to activation of groups of people, like people who are in the same place.
Jason: Engagement and iteration.
David: What is good about the 140 character limit?
Laura: Meets the need of two-way, social grooming.
Jason: It's short, like a one line joke.
Deb: Constraints breed invention.
Deb: SAP tried 5000 character tweets in an in-house pilot and it didn't go far.
David: Lowers the transaction costs compared to blogging.
Deb: Twitter is more like communication.
Sanford Dickert: Twitter solved the privacy and noise problems. "Hmmm - I actually like the 140 character limit - it makes people more efficient with their thoughts - just like how limited memory and HD space made programmers in the 60s and 70s very efficient programmers."
My Observations:
Collaboration is a lot more than editing a document or a thread together.
It's casting (bringing the right people together).
It's the metawork of common language development, modeling the deliverables in a way everyone understands, goal setting, planning, coordinating, controls, communication.
It's the social activity of bonding around common purpose (sometimes around a paycheck but often around a shared interest or value).
It's trying small things before big things to climb a learning curve of how to work with each other, building trust, knowing who can do what well, of learning who leads, who works, who has insight, who has connections.
It's creating a common vision of the work to be done and how to do it.
It's learning how to resolve differences within the group and resolve stressors from outside the group.
It's creating rituals and rites of passage, of establishing behavioral norms.
It's about finding best practices that help you become productive, efficient, and effective together.
Tools like Skype, twitter, blogs, and wikis let people talk with each other but few tools help with any of the other parts (let alone the actual work).
You're still on your own.
- Phil Wolff
Laura: Public waves weren't planned but became popular, and are now part of the central design.
Deb: The fact that we're not collaborating more with all these tools out there is what's really interesting.
Jason: One barrier to tool interop is the profit motive.
David: These tools give us new kinds of publics. Paul's software creates gated communities with defined publics.
Paul: A great deal of work is uncovering extant knowledge and creating new knowledge. Lots of knowledge is in verticals. Legal OnRamp's software respects structures for attorney-client privilege, so there's a public ramp and company-specific things. Solving collaboration as a horizontal problem is much more difficult than solving collaboration vertically.
Laura: The fact that twitter is so messy and random and torrential creates an interesting collaborative context. Problems find their way to the right people.
Paul: The social structure of law departments and their ecosystem are much more defined.
Jason: Knowledge management (document management) systems died, replaced by internal blogs and wikis and search.
David: KM systems became records management. When companies bring social media inside the firewall, how do the media change?
Jason: Talking in a human voice doesn't change. It's still about engagement and virality.
Deb: The writing depends on an org's people, culture, products. Contrast legal vs. media companies, for example. Media tools are making roles more porous. Inside the firewall, businesses have goals, focused energy.
David: Is there an anti-hierarchical cultural statement made by wave?
Laura: Waves are very democratic today. Enterprises may adapt wave to add back controls.
After...
Adrian Chan (via Google Wave): "Sorry to have missed it -- it just bugs me to no end that in the midst of the conversational turn in web and web tools, so many of us miss the fundamental differences introduced by talk... talk is the mode of production, talk is the means of distribution. that's social media. it's not "information" -- though it contains information of course -- it's more and much of what more it is still escapes us -- escapes our ability to capture, measure, relate, quantify, filter, sort, and so on...
Skype and live voice/video conversations haven't been part of anything in this event, or the others like it. I blame Skype's branding problem:
Skype is antisocial software, not a place or way to discover future friends or colleagues.
Skype is just for your closest circle, fewer than ten contacts.
Skype is an isolated network that doesn't interop with others.
That branding is reinforced by Skype's product focus. Fear of strangers, as shown by the inane and inadequate profile and privacy systems. Little support for large numbers of contacts because the "average" user doesn't need them (and can never graduate to power user if power features remain buried or unbuilt).
P.S. Every conference organizer should Ustream.tv all sessions. Cheap or free and brings thousands of people into the room with an interest in just one session or who cannot attend. You can't buy the resulting word of mouth in a realtime world.
AT&T loathes Skype. Skype costs them international calling money and changes consumer expectations in ways mobile carriers cannot respond. So AT&T forbid Apple to permit Skype voice calls over the wireless network. It worked for two years. Now that barrier is down, how else can they slow or stop Skype? To bring a humble Skype to the negotiation table? Three anticompetitive strategies:
The Parity Strategy: Get government to treat Skype like a fat incumbent landline phone company.
e911. Emergency dialing is expensive, unreliable with softphones like Skype, and different in every country. Skype says it is not a phone company, so the US FCC should not require Skype to offer emergency dialing. The incumbents would love to saddle Skype with this requirement.
Assistance to the Hearing Impaired. Require Skype to offer interpreters for the deaf.
Skype and US, State and Local Phone Taxes. Lobby for Skype to collect federal, state and local value added taxes and fees. Blur the distinction between Skype and phone companies. Complicate Skype's prices and products.
Metro/State/Provincial Regulation. Encourage non-Federal governments and agencies to entangle Skype in hearings, compliance procedures.
Administrivia. Phone companies file detailed reports with state and federal regulators. In triplicate. Ask local agencies to swamp Skype with requests for information.
Attack Skype's Brand.
Pollute Skype's Security Brand. Skype has a reputation for being very secure, relatively spam free, and a safe way to communicate. Invest in academic challenges to Skype security. Publicize every stalker, lawsuit and robocaller. Host "ethical hacker" contests and spread the results.
The Weapon of Evildoers. "Criminals and terrorists use Skype." Host conferences for police and intelligence agencies on threats posed by Skype. Urge them to compel Skype to give up encryption. Force Skype to rebut law and order politicians.
Reframe Net Neutrality. Net neutrality improves Skype user access to networks. Supporters of net neutrality use language like freedom and choice. Instead, blame Skype for slow pipes, limited coverage and congested bandwidth.
Sponsor Class Action Suits. Pit dissatisfied customers against Skype. Force Skype to invest in lawyers, not engineers.
Start the Skype-Killer Adventure Fund. Confuse Skype's customers with a market full of Skype clones. Pay peanuts to attract entrepreneurial talent to your war on Skype.
Raid Skype Talent. Half of Skype's employees are paid Eastern European wages. Aggressively recruit them, stalling Skype's projects.
Repeat Worldwide. Share with telcos in every market a template for attacking Skype. Make Skype struggle in every country.
Guest post by Mark Poole, member of the Skype 5.X Discussion
Skype CEO Josh Silverman joined FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Free Press's Ben Scott and Verizon government affairs VP David Young for two hours at the Brookings Institute today. These are Mark Poole's notes from that panel.
This webcast spotlighted the issue of access. When the discussion turned to open access via the cell network, someone used the description dumb pipe. It's not the copper line, fiber optic line or the wireless signal flowing between cell towers that is dumb. The leadership of companies that provide these pipes is dumb.
"The exact expectations you have of your PC, you're going to have of your mobile phone." — Josh Silverman
The guy from Verizon really gave a glimpse into the thinking of wireless providers. He wanted on one hand to say they applaud openness to the Internet but then offer excuses why a program like Skype might not work over his network.
Rather than plan for a robust system that will handle demand today and five years from today and at the same time charge a fair price for use of their pipe, they want to try to compete with companies that offer web stores to sell applications. He described Verizon Widgets and the FiOS cable offering. He spoke of value add services Verizon can provide developers who sell through the Verizon store. Verizon's greed may be their undoing.
Silverman did a good job of diplomatically pushing Verizon to move to more open access. The potential problem with open access and Verizon along with other cell providers will be if they continue strong arm tactics when it comes to plans they offer. Charging ten to twenty bucks for monthly unlimited texting and forcing customers into high monthly minute plans, so they can get promotions like Friends and Family from Verizon, run contrary to where we should be today. It's all about access without regard what we do with that access. This is another example of dumb company leaders not dumb pipes.
Silverman presented the notion that open access for all will allow rapid innovation to continued. He pointed out how the cycle time for new technologies, disruptive technologies was getting shorter and shorter. He tried to stroke the ego of the cell providers by telling the Verizon rep that what they were doing by providing access was not really providing a dumb pipe but instead a complex job.
From my perspective the public interest won out completely. One of the other participants said the speech by the FCC chairman (.pdf) today was a paradigm shift. He looked back to two other shifts and differentiated today's by saying that the previous shifts were more about the rights and ultimate profits of a few instead of policies that favored an individual's rights and use of the Internet. Today's speech was clearly aimed at keeping access to the Internet open and with as few speed bumps as possible when it comes to high speed access.
FCC Chairman wants network neutrality, wired and wireless, Nate Anderson. "FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski waded directly into the network neutrality fight today, launching a new proceeding designed to turn the FCC's existing "principles" into "rules"—and to add two more. The rules would apply equally to wired and wireless connections."
Skype's Jonathan Rosenberg is speaking at eComm on Monday (11:15am). He's one of Skype's thought leaders, the company's Chief Technology Strategist. I was really hoping he'd announce how Skype will play in ViPRland. His talk blurb goes in another direction: 
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