Guest post by Paul Amery:

Whoever said that should really get royalties!

A few changes are happening in SDP, and we wanted to let you know about them.

As part of Skype's focus on platformization, it makes sense for the Developer Program to build tighter relationships with the Core Tech and Engineering teams driving this work in Tallinn. With that in mind, myself, Lester Madden and Caitlin Wright will be leaving Skype before the end of 2007.

I joined Skype in August 2006, and some good things have happened since then:

* We created the route to market you requested, in the shape of Extras Manager since 3.0 launch
* Downloads of third-party apps have increased from a few thousand a month to 40m downloads in 12 months
* Finally, we've made progress on Web Services. wolli will keep you posted on plans for the Directory Web Service, open sourcing plans and the shape of Client APIs
* Thanks to sterling work from Antoine, partners and press are reporting healthy relationships with SDP
* Events in Tokyo, San Jose, Prague and New York help you meet us often
* Comms are much better, I kicked off a monthly newsletter, and Halina is working hard on a new Devzone rebrand and launch. It looks good.

I am sad to go, but having accomplished a lot of my initial goals - I feel there is cause to celebrate. Peeter "wolli" Mõstküla is the interim head of SDP, so please contact him or Antoine "Ants" Bertout for partner issues.

Sten Tamkivi, who is the executive sponsor of our program, assures me this is by no means an end of Skype's drive to support our great ecosystem. I'm sure you'll see more posts here on how exactly the program will be evolving further.

I want to thank you all and wish all the best to SDP team members who'll continue to carry the torch. If you wish to get in touch with me on my private email, I'd love to hear from you.

My contact is p_amery@hotmail.com and you can call me on Skype: paul.amery.

Regards,
Paul