General

This week will mark the first month on the job for Skype CEO Josh Silverman. It may not be as round an anniversary as 100 days, but if you want to find out what’s brewing in the mind of the man at the top, Almost Thirty Days On the Job looks like a pretty workable milestone. And it didn’t even require an international logistics operation to do this interview — being able to reel in the CEO to benefit the readers of this blog is one of the perks of an open-plan office here in Tallinn. Enjoy.

Continue reading "Interview with Skype CEO Josh Silverman" »

Mobile-space watchers among our American readers have perhaps seen this at the appropriate time, but since being late to the cool kids’ party is not embarrassing as one might think, we’re happy to have missed the premiere of this fabulous spoof. Enjoy!

For more on HandSolo, see the companion website. I suspect, though, that at some unspecified point in the future, this ad will get umm-so-what shrugs instead of laughs. That’s because I fully expect something like the HandSolo to be available before mankind checks out. And I fully expect Skype to be involved.

Hi, I’m Josh. The new guy. On March 24, I’ll step aboard as CEO to lead the next stage of Skype’s exciting journey.

To say that I’m looking forward to leading this company is an understatement. Skype is one of the defining internet technologies of our era. It’s helping people all over the planet connect with each other like never before. It’s changing the world. You don’t look forward to something like that. You drop what you’re doing and jump aboard.

I’m well aware that it is more than just an ingenious feat of engineering, which has made Skype one of the most rapidly-adopted technologies in human history. It’s a passionate community of users who believe in the power of human connection, in bold innovation and in striving for product excellence which has put us on our path to changing the world. I share your passion, and take very seriously the responsibility of all of us at Skype to be good stewards of the product and the brand.

So what can you expect from me? That I’m serious about wanting to build the greatest products — and the greatest company — on Earth. That doing so means listening well, being willing to think different and take risks. And in everything we do, one thing is certain: we’ll always have the best interests of the Skype community at heart.

I’m the new guy, and have a lot to learn. To really understand Skype’s cultural and technological DNA, my number one priority is to do a lot of listening and learning. With my wife and kids about to begin their adventure in Estonia as well, I have all the support I could ever need. I want to know everything about the technology, the team and the community. And I hope to share some of my observations on this very blog and see what you think, too.

As chief executive, I’m stepping into a flight deck first captained by co-founder Niklas Zennström and latterly interim CEO Michael van Swaaij. Both of whom have done great, meaningful things with this company. I don’t yet have the right to expect your enthusiastic two thumbs up. But as we go further on this journey together, I plan to earn it.

In the meantime, I look forward to meeting and talking with as many of you as possible over the months and years to come.

We are wanting to partner with companies who can resell Skype services to small businesses and SoHo’s within Europe. If you are an IT consultant or offer IT support services and you have a large network of business clients, then please get in touch.

You would be incentivized to sell Skype services to business users including SkypeOut, SkypeIn and the Business Control Panel. Please see www.skype.biz for an overview of the Skype for Business offering. If you think you can sell this to your clients, then please contact us.

Send an introductory email to resellers@skype.com and include a summary of your business and an overview of your client base. We are looking for partners with large networks of business users who the Skype offering will appeal to.

Skype has just launched the latest version of Skype for Mac 1.5. This is designed especially for Mac to be faster and easier to use, with exclusive Mac-only features.

You can read all about this on the Mac Blog

We’ve also released a preview version of video for Mac which is now available for brave users who can’t bear to wait any longer.

‘Preview’ means that we’ve only tested it under specific conditions, and that we can’t guarantee the quality for users on different hardware or operating system YET. For the full launch of Skype for Mac with video we need our partners to help us provide the best hardware available for Mac users to have great quality video calls. If you would like to get involved or let us know what you have planned for Mac, please email us.

If you are looking to partner with Skype, then Skypecasts are a great way to start introducing your customers to Skype, and introducing your company to the Skype community of over 100million users.

Why not host a Skypecast to discuss an issue relevant to your users? All Skypecasts are promoted in the Skypecast Directory giving you exposure to the Skype community.

Read the help guide to find out more about hosting and attending Skypecasts. If you use Six Apart Typepad for your company’s blog, we have created this widget to make it easy for TypePad users to announce and promote their Skypecasts on their blog.

If you want to learn more about the partnership opportunities with Skype, here is a great opportunity. Over the next week or so we will be hosting a series of Skypecasts to talk about different aspects of partnering with Skype.

Here is the agenda of upcoming Skypecasts relevant to partners:

1. Partnership opportunities with Skype Hosted by davison_scott Starts May 5, 12:00 (FINISHED)

This Skypecast will provide a high level overview of the different partnership opportunities that exist with Skype.

2. Earn money promoting Skype Hosted by owenparry Starts May 12, 12:00 (MOVED TO MAY 19 same time)

Calling all bloggers and webmasters: Joining the affiliate program and spread the word about Skype - we’ll pay you for every person you get to try out SkypeOut, SkypeIn, Skype Voicemail and hardware. This cast gives you the lowdown.

3. Skype centric hardware Hosted by ed_botterill Starts May 10, 16:00 (FINSHED)

Existing/potential hardware partners: Join this Skypecast to learn more about the evolution of Skype hardware and understand what makes a good product.

‘What are Skypecasts?

We are currently offering an early preview of Skypecasts Skypecasts enable people to discuss shared interests — anything from classic cars and cooking, to home design and computer support. Skypecasts are moderated by the ‘host’ who is able to mute, eject or pass the virtual microphone to participants when they wish to speak. Hosting or participating in a Skypecast is completely free. How to join or host a Skypecast? See the user guide.

Skype affiliates earn commission by promoting SkypeOut, SkypeIn, SkypeVoicemail and hardware on their websites. They do this by using special links and banners provided by us.

It is the quickest way to establish a relationship with Skype, and it’s free to do. The Skype affiliate programme is available in almost every country in the world. All you need to do is check out http://www.skype.com/partners/affiliate/ where you will find instructions on how to get started.

Owen

Hello, I’m Scott from Skype’s partner marketing team. As you can imagine we get lots of requests from companies interested in partnering with Skype. We already have some great partners from many different fields including hardware, software and online; but we are always looking for new partner’s who and can help us grow and better serve the Skype community.

The purpose of this blog is to communicate in a timely way with the thousands of potential partners who want to keep an eye on what Skype is up to. Sorry we can not always respond to everyone individually, but hopefully this blog will help to answer many of your questions and keep you in the loop.

I plan to post information on new developments relevant to partners, upcoming events we will be attending and also any of our partner’s announcements that may be of interest to the broader Skype community.

Who knows where this will take us, but I hope you find it useful.