I was expecting my first week at Skype to be a gentle introduction to the company, meet a few people, have a few coffees, get use to the commute to the office. But BAM straight in at the deep end!

Seriously though, its great that so many of you took the time to email me, my inbox is crammed which is fantastic because I really want to be here for you guys. I am going to reply to all of you, its just taking a little time to get though them all, so bear with me.

I am still getting up to speed with things. It’s strange coming from a company with over 1,000 employees in the office and knowing the names and job functions of hundreds of them, to an environment where I struggle to remember the names of the 20 or so people sitting around me, let alone remember what they do. But it’s only day 4 so that will get better or people will have to start wearing name badges.

Most of the questions in my inbox relate to how you can partner with Skype, somewhere on the Skype website – though not in a easy place to find is a form that should be completed so it can get to the right person. We are in the process of redesigning the website a little to make things easier to find, but for now if you are interested in partnering with Skype take a look at: http://www.skype.com/partners/ once you complete the form then this gets forwarded to the right person and you will hear back. If you still have problems, then feel free to give me a shout and I’ll chase things up for you.

The other questions I received relate to SkypeNet and SkypeWeb and how you can get involved, what about the API’s etc. (lot’s of you are very excited about these).

We are still finalizing the programs and will be sending out the details via email, probably in the next 10 days or so.

If you are interested in getting in on the action then you need to send an email to:

skypenet@skype.com – for the SkypeNet details
skypeweb@skype.com – for the SkypeWeb details

And you’ll get all the information sent to you before it made generally available.

So what else will I be up to for the rest of the week? As I mentioned somewhere above we are revamping part of the website to make the site easier to navigate and find things you are looking for, particularly for Partners. I am not really involved with the partner side of things, being more focused on developers but I am lending a hand to make sure the site is user friendly

My main focus is making a start on the new DeveloperZone so I am busy drafting up spec’s to get in all the features that are going to make your lives easier developing Skype applications in the future. And of course I am busy replying to all the great email that you sent me.

Well let me get back to it all, and keep them coming.

Lester