Events

Change often starts with having a conversation. At Skype, we're proud to enable global conversations that can help end poverty. We are partnering with the United Nations Millennium Campaign to foster conversations about the most important issues facing our generation during "Stand Up and Take Action!," the annual mobilization where citizens gather at events around the world to demand that world leaders eradicate extreme poverty by 2015.

As part of the program, for the first time, Skype is collaborating with Ustream to enable video calls about global poverty between world leaders, celebrities, and citizens globally to be broadcast on the internet live via Ustream's interactive video broadcasting platform. The Skype calls will be broadcast on both the Stand Up Take Action! page on Facebook and Ustream's web site.

Those participating in the Skype video calls include former Irish President Mary Robinson, as well as African entertainers Femi Kuti and Angelique Kidjo. The calls will take place throughout this week, leading up to the "Stand Up and Take Action!" weekend on October 16-18 when millions of citizens will take part in activities demanding that world leaders keep their promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

We hope you will join us to stand up to poverty by engaging in your own dialogues about this global crisis and what can be done to eradicate it. To find out how to get involved in "Stand Up and Take Action" events happening across the globe, please visit www.standagainstpoverty.org.

Julian Spittka is Product Manager and Senior Engineer for Audio and Video at Skype

Today at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas, I had the privilege of presenting about how Skype is opening up new opportunities for broadcasters.

Over the last year, there have been many game-changing developments in the broadcast industry as many broadcasters have looked to technology and social media tools to tap into content from viewers. Look no further than CNN’s iReport that is constantly gathering news tips and multimedia from viewers; or look at The Oprah Winfrey Show, which uses Skype’s High Quality Video calling on a regular basis to include special guests on-air from virtually anywhere.

Broadcasters are embracing Skype because it complements traditional news gathering options (e.g. satellites, camera crews, etc.) in an easy and low cost way. With just a dual-core PC, broadband Internet connection and a webcam, broadcasters can use High Quality Video calling with Skype to fulfil their content needs. Even better yet, millions of people around the world are using Skype already, so it makes it easier for broadcasters to find someone to talk to over Skype.

Skype is continuing to innovate and improve its software to deliver the best voice and video calling experience possible. In the most recent version of Skype for Windows (Version 4.0) call quality is substantially improved. The new audio codec achieves wideband audio quality using 50% less bandwidth than previously required. Moreover, it introduces super wideband audio that delivers crystal clear, richer and warmer sound to those using a compatible headset and a high quality broadband connection.

In addition, as I mentioned during my presentation, Skype is currently testing HD Video calling which can deliver up to 720p. If broadcasters have the pre-requisite HD camera, HD capture card, a fast PC, and enough bandwidth, they too can start testing HD Video calling over Skype.

At Skype, we’re proud to have the best and the brightest audio and video engineers who make it possible for our software to deliver amazing voice and video quality that is so good, even broadcasters love it.

If you’re a broadcaster, and want to find out more, please get in touch.

Wednesday is Earth Day, and many environmental groups and companies around the world are doing their part to educate people about the Earth’s environment and threats to it. The day is intended to help improve the environment and bring more awareness to people about conserving energy, recycling, renewing natural habitats, and leading healthier lives so we can protect the future for all.

According to research commissioned by the WWF UK in 2008, if businesses were to cut back 20 percent of their air travel and replace those trips with video calls, it would eliminate 22 million tons of CO₂ each year. Based on our own estimates, this is equivalent to:

• Annual emissions from 4 million cars
• One year’s energy use of 1.9 million homes
• Preserving 150,000 acres of forest

In addition, because Skype calls take place over the internet and are based on a peer-to-peer system, the company depends on a limited amount of servers. Thus, Skype calls require significantly less energy than other means of communication.

Video calling was introduced by Skype in December 2005. In a little more than three years, video calling has entered the mainstream and is widely used by people around the world. Today, 34 percent of all Skype calls between our users include video.

Not only are Skype video calls free, but they also provide a great alternative to travel and a better way to stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues, when you can’t be there in-person.

Business travel and commuting makes up as much as 50% of carbon output, according to WWF commissioned research. Simply cutting back on business travel and commuting, and enacting face-to-face video calls can make a huge difference. So on Earth Day, as you think about how you can help curb global warming – Skype is an easy and free way to get started.

From 3.30pm–4.30pm PST today, Skype will be holding a press conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall Room S6.

It’s being streamed live, and if you join the webcast you’ll be able to participate in the question and answer session after the presentation.

After the event, the webcast will be archived and available for viewing by all.

In 2007, 2.2 million homes and businesses in Sydney switched off their lights for an hour, and within a year, the event grew into a global sustainability movement.

Last year, 50 million people switched off their lights. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

This year, WWF has an even more ambitious target. To help them reach it, join Skype and vote earth. The result of the vote will be presented to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year, and WWF are hoping to get 1 billion votes for Earth.

We’ll be turning off all of our office lights for the hour, and Skype employees across the globe will be joining in – and we hope that you do the same.

It’s our opportunity to demonstrate to world leaders that we care about tackling climate change – calling on them to take action to save the planet for future generations.

So don’t forget Earth Hour: 8:30pm local time, wherever you live on planet earth. Saturday 28 March 2009.

The Skype team are on their way back from CES as I type, but have managed to get this video and presentation to me to share with you. Unfortunately, our trusty cameraman’s Flip battery ran out before Scott’s question and answer session finished, but I hope it and the slides below are of interest.

Also, thank you to all of you who’ve blogged about the launch of the lite version of Skype for Android, and the release of our first beta of Skype for MIDs – I’ll blog about some of what’s been said later in the week.

The upcoming election is big news in the USA. But there's no reason to wait until November to vote--albeit it in a different sort of election.

BusinessWeek has opened its online polls.

And Skype is in the running for the best "Online Tools" for Calling.

The competition is pretty stiff so get over to the BusinessWeek site
and click for your favourite.

You also can vote on the best new Web site, the most influential
person on the Web, information, fun and money sites.

As we say in Chicago: Vote early and often.

The polls close Sept. 12. BusinessWeek will publish the results on
Sept. 29 in the pub's acclaimed "2008 Best of the Web" edition.

Did you know that we only smile 35% as much as we think we do? And that the longest recorded laughing fit was in a village in Tanzania in 1962 and lasted two years? Two years?!

Well, 1962 was ages ago. At Skype, we've decided it's high time we had another laughter epidemic -- but this time it should be around the world. So, we're creating the world's first and longest giggling fit, and we want you to join it

Just plug in your webcam, watch the start of the chain below, and film yourself watching it. Send us your video and your laugh could be added to the chain.

Find out more about the Laughter Chain (plus find out how many calories a good laugh burns up) at the Skype Laughter Chain website.

Howard Wolinsky here, your friendly neighborhood US Blogger for Skype, just popping in with the latest breaking news from the Skype Nomad:

Thirty-three days, and 17 countries later, Rebecca Campbell, better known at her blog, Facebook and MySpace, as the Skype Nomad, finished her 'round-the-world trip and got off the boat in Tallin, Estonia.,
She headed over to Skype's supreme HQ where she was greeted with cheers, along with champagne toasts and slabs of strawberry mousse cake. A night out on town followed.

"I'm pretty tired, but it was great. It was an epic adventure," said Rebecca, 26, a copywriter from London, England.

Her goal was to show that she could be in "perpetual motion" and still communicate via Skype.

Continue reading "Skype Nomad successfully completes excellent adventure in mobility" »

We at Skype have now waved goodbye to this year's CES, the consumer-electronics industry's trade show of record.

These massive light-bending, gravity-distorting gatherings of tens of thousands of journalists, bloggers, tech companies, tourists and tote-bag-filling hangers-on are never a cakewalk. Sure, it keeps getting more crowded than ever, our backs hurt, our heels breathe fire, our vocal chords turn to beef jerky, and them miniature buckets that collect beads of executive sweat during media interviews have holes on the bottom. But CES -- even with talk of the show apparently considering other, non-Vegas options in the future -- is a phenomenon like nothing else. And you have to love it. (It's the law.)

Continue reading "Echoes of CES" »

[Salesforce.com](http://www.Salesforce.com) are this week hosting [Dreamforce](http://www.salesforce.com/conference/conference.jsp) their annual users conference, with a number of Skype Partners in attendance.

[Convenos](http://www.convenos.com/) recently completed the certification of their [Convenos Meeting Center](http://www.convenos.com/solutions.html) for the AppExchange platform and will be announcing availability of this product at the show. Now you can start or schedule a web conference or collaborative session from within the Salesforce.com interface using Convenos Meeting Center. Convenos are offering Skype Starter Packs in their booth and have also put together several show specials with Skype partners, including [VAPPS](http://www.highspeedconferencing.com) for Highspeedconferencing.com and [IPEVO](www.ipevo.com) for the new Xing phones.

Skype will be sharing a booth with both [Intel](http://www.intel.com), [Polycom](http://www.polycom.com), [VoSky](http://www.vosky.com) and [Plantronics](http://www.plantronics.com), stop by to see us there.

The next [VON Conference](http://www.von.com) is happening in Boston on Sept 11-14. I’ve had a few people ask if Skype will be there. The answer is no, we will not be at this show in any official capacity. You may find some random Skype staff wondering around, but unfortunately we will not be speaking or exhibiting at the event.

However our Partner [Ascalade have announced](http://www.ascalade.com/) that they will be exhibiting their new Skype Certified™ VoIP phone, at booth number 508.
And looking down the list of exhibitors, I can see several other Skype partners, including [Polycom](http://www.von.com/exhibit_112.html#fhxp1120058298), [Motorola]( http://www.von.com/exhibit_109.html#fhxm1128615356), [Hewlett Packard]( http://www.von.com/exhibit_104.html#fhxh1143026285), [Intel]( http://www.von.com/exhibit_105.html#fhxi1141656175), [Linksys]( http://www.von.com/exhibit_108.html#fhxl1154012201), and [RTX]( http://www.von.com/exhibit_114.html#fhxr1120058444) . So if you are attending, be sure to pop by and visit these stands.

One of our partners [New York Communications]( http://www.nycommsdirect.com) has just sent in these photos from their Englewood Chamber Of Commerce Sidewalk Sale in New Jersey last weekend.

The folks from NY Comms were providing advice to businesses and consumers about how Skype works and had a number of Skype certified devices on display. They will be looking to hold more of these events in the coming weeks, including one on Times Square in New York.

Thanks to [New York Communications](http://www.nycommsdirect.com) for spreading the word, sharing the love, and helping to promote our hardware partners products.

Well I’ve just returned from eBay Live in Dusseldorf – a two day show dedicated to all things eBay. And of course as the newest member of the eBay family, Skype was present for the first time. We had a stand in the exhibition hall, which looked something like this.

Several of our hardware partners were represented on the stand and there was plenty of interest from attendees in some of the cool new devices not yet seen in Europe such as the Ipevo speaker phone, the [Polycom Communicator]( http://accessories.skype.com/item?SID=a9d0de66ccaa4d6b17745bfb2d7871c20db:4580&sku=C100S), the [Netgear Wifi phone](http://accessories.skype.com/item?SID=a9d0de66ccaa4d6b17745bfb2d7871c20db:4580&sku=SPH101) and the Sony Vaio mouse phone which attracted plenty of attention. Thanks to all our hardware partners for providing this equipment which helped us once again demonstrate the breadth of the Skype eco-system and some of the opportunities that exist for powersellers to start selling Skype certified hardware on eBay.

On the stand we were demoing the latest version of Skype, and introducing powersellers to the benefits of the product. Many eBay sellers are already starting to include Skype Me buttons on their eBay homepages and integrating it in to the way they communicate with their customers.

With the tradeshow running from 8am to 7pm, it was a very tiring experience, but a successful show was had by all. We now move on to Las Vegas for [eBay Live US]( http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/) on June 13-15.

Skype will be exhibiting at the [eBay Live Germany](http://ebaylive.ebay.de/) Event in Dusseldorf on May 26-27. If you are attending the show you can come and visit us on our stand in the main hall. We will be demonstrating several examples of Skype Certified devices from some of our [Hardware Partners]( http://www.skype.com/partners/hardware/) , presenting in the Powersellers seminar and participating at the developer’s conference.

The [US eBay Live](http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/) is happening in Las Vegas June 13-15. And the [Developer’s conference]( http://www.ebaydevcon.com/skype1/tracks/keynotes/) runs on June 10-12.

Skype will not be exhibiting at this event, but some members from the mobile team will be attending and trying to squeeze in as many meetings as possible. If your company is attending the event and would like to meet up with someone from Skype, please let me know here, or email [partnermarketing@skype.net](mailto:partnermarketing@skype.net)

I have spoken to the mobile team and they would be particularly interested in meeting up with anyone who has innovative ideas on partnering with Skype. This is a big year for us in mobile and we will need all hands on deck. We do not plan to go it alone and are always on the lookout for good partners to help us move in to this space. So if you think you have something to offer, then drop us an email with your ideas. The CTIA show could be a good place to meet up and discuss further.

More information on the event is available at [www.ctiawireless.com](http://www.ctiawireless.com)

Hi all,

Very busy planning for CeBIT at the moment. If any of you are planning to attend and would like to meet with someone at Skype, please send an email to [partnermarketing@skype.net](mailto:partnermarketing@skype.net) and we can try to arrange a meeting. Make sure you include information on your company and the partnership opportunity.

We don't have a stand, but we do have people attending the show, so any meetings will need to be pre-arranged. Short notice I know, but please send an email if you want to meet up.

[www.cebit.de](http://www.cebit.de)

Skype will be having a presence at the following events:

* [CeBIT – Hannover, March 9-15](http://www.cebit.de)
* [CTIA – Las Vegas, April 5-7](http://www.ctiawireless.com)

Please let us know if you would like to work with us at these shows by contacting partnermarketing@skype.com