Life at Skype

Is your office like this? If so, you need an escape plan. There's one here:

Yes, my job has expired.

Oprah Winfrey talks to Josh Silverman

For the past year, Skype has enabled The Oprah Winfrey Show to talk face-to-face with anybody, anywhere, at anytime.

We've been tremendously inspired watching Oprah use Skype video to connect with everyday people, celebrities, and even animals on her show. In fact, did you see Oprah last week? Oprah had a Skype video call with a huge grizzly bear. (Now, that's a first.)

This week, we're expecting to see Oprah push the limits with Skype even further. Watch Josh Silverman, President of Skype, make an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Thursday, May 21st as part of the "Where the Skype are You?" episode. It's going to be a fascinating Skype adventure not to be missed as Oprah takes viewers to some surprising places over Skype video.

Check out the video teaser on Oprah.com.

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.

In the wake of the release of Skype 4.0 for Windows and Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac, it’s time to say thank you to the people who speak to you all the time, unnoticed, through Skype application itself. Sometimes in English, sometimes in C++ or Delphi – but have you ever wondered how Skype gets translated into your language?

Continue reading "Nobody expects the Volunteer Translators" »

This is the second in a two part exploration of the making of Skype 4.0 for Windows. It offers a bit of an insight into the way things work here at Skype, and gives an idea of what’s to come. If you haven’t already, you might like to start by reading part one.

First steps

The 18th of June 2008 marked the first public airing of Skype 4.0 for Windows, and the start of a very different public beta process for Skype. With previous versions of the software, we’d typically released one beta, fixed bugs, and then released a gold version a month or two later.

This time around, we decided to use the public beta to get feedback not only on bugs, but also on the new user interface. We also set out with the intention of testing the beta with a variety of users, and not just the power users who’d been representative of the vast majority of beta testers until now.

So, as well as talking about the three beta versions of Skype 4.0 for Windows on this blog, we proactively offered them to new and less experienced users, as they make up a large percentage of our total user base.

Don’t forget: to many of these new users, the idea of using their computer to make calls may have been an entirely alien concept, and so by offering them (and other new users) the beta version of 4.0 we had an opportunity to gauge reactions from a far broader sample set than we had previously – and a sample (we hope) much more representative of the Skype user base as a whole.

Continue reading "The story of 4.0: In the wild" »

This is the first in a two part exploration of the making of Skype 4.0 for Windows. It offers a bit of an insight into the way things work here at Skype, and gives an idea of what’s to come. Look out for the second part tomorrow.

The rationale for 4.0

Online communication has changed significantly over the last ten years – both in terms of the way people do it, and in terms of who’s doing it. Voice and video calling, as well as instant messaging, are now firmly in the mainstream.

Despite this, the current generation of online communication tools have remained largely unchanged since the mid-1990s. The vast majority of instant messaging software, for example, has always looked and behaved very similarly – and, until the release of Skype 4.0 for Windows, Skype was no exception.

Of course, this has been done partly with good reason – there are familiar, established user interface metaphors which make software easier to use, and which lower barriers for new users. However, through our initial research, we began to discover that the way people use software like Skype is fundamentally different to the way people used instant messaging software back in the mid-nineties.

Continue reading "The story of 4.0: Beginnings" »

As you probably know, Skype’s largest office is in Tallinn, Estonia. Whenever I visit, just before touching down at Tallinn airport, the plane passes Lake Ülemiste – home of the Ülemiste Elder, a mythological character who innocently asks passers-by whether the growing city has been completed. Apparently, the correct response is, “Not yet.” Imply the opposite, the legend goes, and the grumpy Elder will flood the city.

Skype, too, remains a work in progress. We’re a dynamic, fast-growing company that learns from a changing world and adjusts accordingly. For us to continue thriving, change cannot be a one-time thing. It has to be a way of life. Stagnation, the dismal alternative, requires no effort and creeps up silently. People tend to get stuck in their ways and companies are no different. When they get bigger, they get clumsier.

I’d rather avoid that last bit. So, in August we began evaluating our structure to make sure, really sure, that we don’t join the Clumsy Club.

Now, 2008 has been a very good year for us. Our growth rate has been terrific and I’m cautiously optimistic about healthy growth in 2009 as well. Obviously, anyone claiming to have a reliable crystal ball is either a fool or a gambler. We’re neither. So we cannot fully predict how much additional business will be heading our way because of the recession. As a five-year-old company, we simply haven’t lived through a downcycle before. But in difficult times, people tend to turn to value. And Skype represents value. We’re monitoring the market closely, but based on what we see at the moment, we plan to continue growing our team to help achieve Skype’s full potential.

Excited as we are about bringing new colleagues aboard, there’s more to reorganizing our structure for continued growth. Back in the summer, we set out to be smart about it. And transparent. And fair.

Which is why we held numerous workshops to gain input from the team on how our structure and ways of working need to change. Change that we hope will lead to sustained growth, better products and an even more empowering work life at Skype. One of the things we’re doing is to create smaller “companies” within the company: consumer-, business-, mobility-, and developer-focused business units vaccinated against shackles that curb innovation and risk-taking. Each new business unit is designed to emulate the feel of a start-up and to cultivate a deeper sense of ownership.  

This is just a low-resolution snapshot from what’s a continual journey of change. There’s much more to it, of course. Replotting our roles, responsibilities and accountability takes time. While we think that we’ve done most things right, some won’t come through as intended. Tweaking them for a few months should make life at Skype work well for everybody.

Naturally, changes will be most meaningful to us on the inside. If you’re a Skype user, I hope you don’t care too much about our organizational plumbing. The pleasures and struggles of your own life are much too important for that. But here’s the thing. Our structural rethink isn’t about change for change’s sake. From day one, everything at Skype has boiled down to delighting the customer. With a bit of home improvement to support further growth and innovation, we’re just making sure it stays that way.

As for the Ülemiste Elder with flood fantasies… Sorry to disappoint you, old man.

Skype will always be a work in progress.

Josh Silverman
Skype President

Because it’s Friday afternoon here in London, I thought I’d share something which has been keeping us amused here at Skype HQ.

Thanks to the guys at the Creative Review, we came across the latest silly photo meme – Skyped Ya! Just position your Skype video call window over the image, and hey presto – instant relief from that long call with the boss.

“I’m not sure what the practical application is, but it sure makes the monthly video call to my mother-in-law a little more interesting,” says Diskin who, by day, works with Morrison at the TBWA ad agency in London.

We like to think so too

I'm staring at the blinking cursor on an empty page. This page. And it occurs to me that five years ago today, Skype was that cursor. An impatient speck on the world's radar screen, vying for attention that would help write a new chapter in the history of communication.

With the benefit of five years of hindsight, Skype's success now appears so logical, so natural. As if Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis and their skeleton crew of Estonian programmers had planned it all along.

Hmm. They simply couldn't have predicted where this journey would take them and millions of others - who, among them, have clocked up more than 100 billion Skype-to-Skype minutes. Visionary foresight is one thing. But expecting Skype to have touched close to 350 million users by year five, to have enabled billions of conversations, enriched and even enabled millions of relationships, and along the way to have helped transform one of the largest industries in the world? That would have been downright delusional.

Continue reading "Five Years of Wow" »

Today, Skype's President Josh Silverman picks a lesson from Communist-era dissident communication that is equally relevant to companies that seek to become - or remain -- innovative. In fact, there's even an connection to the recently-introduced beta version of Skype 4.0 for Windows as well (which, for the traditionalists among us, will also have a compact mode).

When a Polish dissident read a letter from his East German friend, he didn't take those handwritten lines at face value. He knew that to make it past eagle-eyed officials, the letter had to appear innocuous. The how's-your-father-doing-oh-he's-fine kind. But using his finely-tuned antenna, he decoded and amplified the subtle hints judiciously sprinkled here and there. By drilling into the subtext and picking up on the unsaid, he used a skill we've largely forgotten in the West. He read between the lines.

Now think of your customer. He doesn't need to worry about a Stasi agent in the mailroom or a recorder in the vase. If you're lucky, he'll tell you exactly what he thinks of your product. Or you read it in a customer-feedback form. Or he blogs about how it could be improved. Which is fabulous. The only problem: you're scratching at the surface.

Continue reading "Unarticulated needs and Skype 4.0" »

Scott Durchslag joined Skype last week (June 30) as chief operating officer, reporting to President, Josh Silverman. I caught up with him Monday while he was in Luxembourg for a meeting of Skype's leadership.

I first met Scott a few years ago when he was an executive at Motorola, the mobile phone pioneer based in suburban Chicago, and I was a tech columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times.

He made a name at Moto, having led a turnaround of the company's South Asia business, where his team doubled revenues to $1billion. As Chief Strategy officer who architected the successful 2002 turnaround strategy, the RAZR phone was launched which became the best-selling mobile phone in history, helping double Moto's market share to 24 percent. Scott was also the force behind Motorola's shift away from proprietary software and toward consumer experience-based designs.

The self-described "consumer product guy" was involved in major deals with such partners as Kodak, Microsoft and Google.

The 42-year-old Chicago area native, who has an MBA from Harvard, left Motorola about a year ago, soon after the company lost Mobile Devices President Ron Garriques to Dell.

He laughed when I asked him whether war-torn Yugoslavia, where he was a freelance journalist, or Schaumburg (Motorola's headquarters) was more dangerous. He wisely kept his counsel.

He has been busy in the past year with some private equity deals and the birth of his second child.

He shared some thoughts about the Skype opportunity and where it's headed.

Continue reading "Skype's new COO Scott Durchslag speaks out " »

This is my first post on the Skype blog, so I figured I'd introduce myself. I'm Rodrigo Madanes and I work at Skype as the Chief Product Strategist. Basically, I look at where we're taking the products.

A few months ago, I was interviewed by Bradley Jones for a book he was putting together, titled "Web 2.0 Heroes". The book consists of interviews with many figures in Web 2.0, each made into a chapter (mine was one of them). I wanted to share with you some of the things we discussed.

Continue reading "Skype's Product Strategist Rodrigo Madanes, one of 20 "Web 2.0 Heroes"" »

For a young 26-year-old London-based copywriter, today was the start of a 33-day round-the-world exercise. An exercise to remain in perpetual motion, to soak up experiences in 15 countries, from hot-air-ballooning in the Austrian Alps to dog-sledding in Alaska, and to see if Skype can help her stay in touch. While supporting a charity in the process.

To find out more about what this -- and the person behind the Skype Nomad pseudonym -- is about, take a look at her blog, as well as the post by our U.S. blogger who talked to the Nomad as she was preparing to embark on her trek.

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" »

Those of us at Skype and the broader internet communications industry are mourning the loss of a very strong voice in our community today. Word reached us this weekend that Russell Shaw, a blogger over at ZDNet's IP Telephony blog who has been a follower of Skype since our beginning, passed away.

At the young age of 60, Russell left us while he was doing what he enjoyed most, covering the industry in San Jose, CA for eComm2008 and VON.x.

Continue reading "Farewell, Russell Shaw" »

Before you read on, let me remind you that it's Friday. The fifth day of the week. The day some people like to thank God or goodness for. In other words, Friday.

One of Skype's enduring values has been the ability to not take ourselves too seriously. The method today: mutilation by anagramming. The victims: three Skype slogans/taglines. Two of them are officially retired while one keeps showing up for work.

So, without further obfuscation, let's see if you can return these to their original form:

- Just throw freak in potent ethylene, rest
- Ear of well-clothed freak thrown
- The bat-eared peak

Perhaps anagramming them will be easier if you're a fan of bad horror films. Just a thought. Good luck!

For quite some time, we've had bloggers sharing the Skype story in a number of countries -- if you're fluent in Portuguese or, say, Japanese, make your choice among the links on the right-side column on this page. But there's been a certain gap in our otherwise toothsome blogging smile.

Today, we're plugging it.

Please join me in welcoming Howard Wolinsky, who made his Oprah-themed debut on our oven-fresh U.S. blog today. Howard is a Pulitzer-nominated 27-year veteran of the Chicago Sun-Times who recently left the paper and now covers high tech, medicine, nanotech and business as a freelancer.

Not only is he a great writer with a keen nose for a good story, but has spun a darn good yarn about his own early moments at the Sun-Times. If you think you know what happened in the States on March 30, 1981, you're off to a good start. If this date doesn't ring a bell, get up to speed by reading about it in Howard's own words at GapersBlock. Trust me, it's worth your time.

So let's welcome Howard, his quirky sense of humor and the unique prism that this life-long reporter brings, to the Skype blogging fraternity!

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.

Animals are a big part of office life at Skype. More often than not, a golden retriever or Dachshund will check in on you during a particularly long conference call. Today, we got a minuscule -- if temporary -- addition to the crew here in Tallinn.

This little kitten, probably no more than a month old, had snuck into the engine compartment of a colleague's car this morning, just outside the office. Weather in this part of the world hovers around the freezing point in late November, so we applaud her smarts and resourcefulness.

So what's the point of all this? If you really need one, it's that a little ball of purring fur in a fast-paced engineering office brings out smiles in a way that few other things can compete with.

May good things come to you, Karter.

Four years ago today, the first public beta version of a little piece of software was released upon an unsuspecting world. The screenshots above help beam us back to the late summer of 2003. (The same day the Inuit of Labrador signed a deal with the Canadian government to self-govern Nunatsiavut. Good to know Skype isn't alone in the Department of Nice Things to Happen That Day.) Skype today looks quite a bit different from what you see above. But don't be fooled. Inside, its soul is still the same.

This afternoon, Skype employees around the globe will raise a glass to the four-year-old. But here are a few oven-fresh words penned by the man without whom there would be little to celebrate, Skype's co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennström:

- - -

Today, Skype turned four. I can hardly believe it's been that long. It only seems like yesterday when Janus and I were talking about people being able to use the computer like a phone. But without a phone. And without a phone bill.

Niklas

Hardware is temporal. Software is forever. You cannot kill software, for it's like Casper the Friendly Ghost. No matter how sharp your spear or cutting blades, the attempt will be futile. I run Skype 2.6 for Mac that came to me as a 30MB file. I can download it a million times and it'll still be there, pretty as ever. It will not burn, drown or develop blemishes.

Sadly, this cannot be said about the Apple iPhone. A lovely device. But one that, mind you, doesn't run Skype. Well, umm.. ok.

When I lived in Utah, a Mormon friend claimed that temple garments can shield and protect their wearer from evil and bullets. Kevlar for the mind, body and spirit. Utah is also home to Blendtec, a company that's been running hilarious online promotional videos for its commercial blenders. Just add iPhone. Watch:

Weep. Would the result have been different if the iPhone could run Skype? Would our software have acted as its temple garment? With said device reduced to black powder, we may never know.

As you ponder the meaning of all this, feel free to bid for the blended iPhone on eBay, for another two days. Also, if you know someone at Blendtec, drop me a line. There are many fine devices out there with built-in Skype software. I'd love to see one of them -- together with my half-baked theory -- meet its blender.

So, here I was, in my previous post, being all jetsetty and stupid about sitting on a flight to Prague and flipping through magazines in search of a Eureka moment. (You've got to admit, though, it was nowhere as bad as Tyler Brule's endless columns that appeal to people who need their dose of rare elitist cool that only radiates from articles written by a rich guy who spends his life in transoceanic levitation.)

"Business travel accounts for 65 percent of all flights within the United States," reports Katharine Mieszkowski in Salon, quoting figures from travel-research company PhoCusWright. Read the article here, it's packed with useful information about emissions related to air travel.

I'm here to state the obvious: if you can skip a flight, do it. And use Skype instead for that oh-so-important meeting. Yes, the chain of events that led to the manufacture and distribution of your PC, webcam, headset, or WiFi phone did create a negative environmental footprint. So the physical stuff that Skype needs is far from squeaky clean when you've got your green-colored glasses on. But using Skype sure beats the hell out of binge flying. Oh yessireebob.

Every once in a while, you stumble across an article that expands your horizons. (Reminds me of Stephen Wright, the comedian, who said, "Some people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths." But that's an unnecessary digression, really.)

On a recent flight, I picked up the July-August issue of Utne Reader and read an amazing article, The Big Throwdown, that they had lifted from the Believer. Apparently, Rock, Paper, Scissors is huge these days, and not just among kindergarten kids. There are league championships, serious strategic gambits, corporate sponsors and pretty girls involved.

Which then reminded me of a really cool game invented by a friend of mine who writes the Virtualities blog. He posted the instructions back in February, but it's worth introducing it here as well. Basically, it's Rock, Paper, Scissors twisted and contorted to fit the Skype age. Instead of hand gestures, you use Skype emoticons. Here are his instructions. Try it, not only is the game refreshing, but it gives a whole new purpose to Skype emoticons.

You've surely noticed that Jaanus, our Revered Staple O' Skype Blogs, has dropped off the radar screen. Was he captured alongside Finnish fishermen in Iranian waters? Cryogenically frozen in a doomsday vault to tell the Skype story to 32nd-century earthlings? Yes to all of the above, probably. But the official version is this: after three years at Skype, he's taking a summer off and will then plunge into the Human Computer Interaction Master's program at Carnegie Mellon. If this sounds like Chuvash to you, here's an explainer: Besides hydrogen chloride, HCI really stands for "usability". Anyway, let's give a big hand to Jaanus for what he's done for us. We'll miss 'im.

To add to your pain, here's a few words about me. The New Guy.

Continue reading "So who's this new guy anyway?" »

2006 was the year where we moved offices at pretty much all Skype locations. Now that we've settled in to our new offices a bit more, it's time to bring you the updated [video tours](http://jobs.skype.com/movieclip.html) of them. Here is a tour of our Tallinn office as it was seen in late 2006 and early 2007. You will see our resident entertainer Toby, and [Marvin the office kitten](http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2006/10/marvin_the_office_kitten.html) who is playing with a mouse, and many people and things we do.

A story has been [going around](http://distantsignal.blogspot.com/2007/02/battle-of-skype-emoticons-beer-almost.html) internally and externally about the emoticon version of the popular [Rock, Paper, Scissors game](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock,_Paper,_Scissors). (Did you know they now have something like the [World Cup for this game]((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock,_Paper,_Scissors#WRPS_sanctioned_tournaments)? )

Instead of hands and real life, the emoticon version is played in Skype chat with -- what else -- emoticons. You can create as many this-emoticon-is-stronger-than-that-emoticon relationships as you like. It's like a wiki-game, everyone can create and edit their own power hierarchies within the emoticon roster.

Here is an example ruleset:

* a is beaten by a
* a is beaten by a or a
* a is beaten by a
* a is beaten by a

For extra gaming pleasure, you may use hidden Skype emoticons to whack your opponents in one swift move.

A real-life story from one of Skypers about the effects of Skype video.

> Heh, my brother's kid is 1.9 old or such and she's quite a brat when trying to put her to bed. Million reasons to get out, walk about, read a book etc.
Yesterday we did first-ever video call with her in the evening and I finished up by telling her that let's go to sleep now. Today brother tells me that she got up and ran to her bed without wishing good night to her dad and fell asleep almost immediately.

We all know that internet technology has changed the way we interact, keep in touch and even meet brand new friends. With Valentine’s Day on the not-so-distant horizon, we’re eager to hear how Skype has helped old romances to grow while allowing new ones to blossom. Now that video calling has become the norm, couples who find themselves separated from each other are keeping the love going strong with a little help from Skype. Click here to share your own tale of Skype romance in advance of February 14th!

We just put out a piece of news about our [management changes](http://about.skype.com/2006/12/skype_announces_senior_managem.html).

Such changes are a disruptive thing. I, of all people, should know. I've been working for three different managers throughout this year, having a lot of re-orgs, re-makes, re-everything. I can certainly think of another group of people who are somewhat put off by the change -- our lovely HR team who barely finished the new organization charts from the previous changes we had these nice new charts, and the moment the charts got finished, the team learned of the news of going back and having to start over.

But this is just pebbles. The big news here is that Niklas will continue to run the company according to his vision with the rest of his original core team that started Skype more than three years ago. eBay brought some people over for a while and some senior eBayers like Henry continue to be in key positions, although acting more as advisors now instead of daily execution. I've had the privilege to work with many of Skype's friends from eBay and I can say they are very fine people who understand and love Skype and want to help us succeed. But now Niklas and his team decided that they have their own ideas about how to deliver the results, building upon the past heritage and the pretty stellar track record of Skype. And eBay lets them do just that.

I haven't really commented on this whole eBay-Skype thing myself too much, as you can have a lot of speculation around it without very little substance. I prefer to let the facts speak for themselves and today's news is a response to the sceptics who figured that eBay will come in and do a hostile takeover and trash Skype.

There will surely be changes in 2007 about what Skype does and does not do. We have said at various times that we will do a lot of different things. Some of those will not happen, while others will happen that we haven't yet spoken of. One thing is for sure -- we will remain true to our original commitment of letting the whole world talk for free, while adding further value with our paid products.

Oh, the times, the times they were... we found this image just lurking around in one of our servers. Or more like "sewers" due to its age it's been more than two years.

Sten, who was [portrayed earlier in the Economist](http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2006/08/this_weeks_economist_about_lif.html), now talks with Naked Conversations about Skype as naked conversationers Rick and Shel proceed on their world tour. (They're not really naked. That's just the title of their book.)

See also what they say about [laptops in old town](http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2006/10/connection.html) and [sleeping in the same room as Queen Elizabeth did](http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2006/10/if_its_ood_enou.html). She was in town last week.

We've heard about dogs at the office. How about a cute little kitten for a change? This guy, called Marvin, was spotted roaming our Tallinn office. Quiet and well-behaved, he ran about in the noiseless manner as kittens do, just poking around and looking at things.

Continue reading "Marvin the office kitten" »

Yesterday, we inaugurated the new office of Skype Tallinn, by far the largest facility of Skype worldwide. This has been a year of moving and relocation, with Skype moving in London, Luxembourg, San Jose and now Tallinn. (We lost the chicken race to others.) I hear this is not the last offices-related news this year, so as always, watch this space for updates.

We're still moving in and unpacking. No pictures of the interior yet, as there's painters and ladders and installers and wires and cables around still, but here are some artifacts from last night's opening party and the surroundings.

We're in a building that's pretty nondescript from the outside, perhaps only differentiated by the logo. This is probably one of the few buildings in the world where you actually see this logo on a house. While pretty subtle at daytime, at night it has a blue glow and is a piece of art on its own.

Inside, though, it's a different story. You can get a feeling of the vibe here if you look at the videos from our previous offices and multiply the coolness factor at least five, if not ten times. It's not too "fancy" or "posh", though, as we don't think much of those things. Rather, I'd say it's smart and functional, being as Skype always was — to the point and getting things done.

Toby the Skype Tallinn mascot dog was there with us at the opening. Not itself, as it got nervous with all the people around, but on the meat dish and the cake. Someone told me:

Can we please stop evangelizing Tobi? Jaanus, don't post several pictures of fake Tobi on cakes and stuff.

Interestingly enough, while Tobi is not even a human, it provides an interesting introspective and an original viewpoint (around the knee-height of most humans) into various aspects of our life here, and thus will continue to be a regular contributor to our sites and blogs.

Continuing the tradition of free office goodies, here's our typical ice cream selection. The ice cream fridges are at various places throughout the office floors, this one is about five meters from my desk.

Here's a view from my window. It's towards forest where you can go running or biking at summertime, and skiing in the winter. ... Ok, I cheated a bit. Between the office and the forest, there's a car park. But still.

It's shaping up to be a pretty good place to work and have fun. Last night's opening party was spectacular as expected. And after having been separated across many temporary locations and homes (some folks stayed at home simply because there was no space for their desk, or not enough chairs... can you imagine?), we're finally all together at the same place.

These days, the old stigma regarding online dating has all but disappeared. A lot of people are starting to realize that All You Can Drink Margarita Night at the tiki bar might not be the best place to meet your eternal soulmate--and that maybe Match.com might yield better results (although we're still not buying Dr. Phil's advice).

I'm eager to hear from Skypers who have met their special someone online--either via Skype itself or through a 3rd party dating service--and who then bolstered their "virtual" relationship over Skype before meeting in person. If that's you, click here to give me (most of) the juicy details.

Do you want to know how we make Skype? Like... really? really really?

Due to the distributed nature of the teams, we use chat a lot. Now, the good thing about the chats is of course that everything you "say" gets recorded. And we've been collecting the "best of" from these chats. Sort of our own little mini-version of bash.org, one of the best Internet sites for geek jokes.

Here's a mini-policy for these. For obvious reasons, you won't find references to any "sensitive" stuff, ongoing products or projects. I've anonymized the quotes to protect the innocent. However, what you see here is 100% genuine, with perhaps only typos corrected and some four-letter words "asterisked", and comes straight from the Guts Of The Organism That Is Making Skype.

It may be disturbing at times. Unexpected. Maybe funny. Maybe at times not so intelligent as the stuff in 37signals' chats. (As said, some of the good stuff also has to be left out.) Sometimes black humor. As Jaan, one of Skype's founding engineers has said...

I like the Monty Python-esque atmosphere in Skype — everything and everybody can be laughed at and being serious is considered a crime (I think you’ve noticed the attitude if you’ve browsed this far on our website)! So, if you don’t have a sense of humor, please don’t apply for a job at Skype, thank you!

If one of Skype's masterminds says it, this is how it must be So... here are some quotes.

A: B would like to have a speech
B: I have a dream
C:

the problem with massive chats is that you boys always turn serious scientific effort into 5th grade class trip to zoo

Continue reading "How we actually make Skype" »

So... today is the real birthday of Skype. Please keep sending us cards and win a prize (competition open until end of this week). We already got quite a few.

Here's a historic shot from that August night three years ago. (The info date on the photo actually shows the 28th of August, not 29th... close enough.) You can see Niklas on the left, with some other original project members. Nothing fancy, just some Chinese place with sticks and soy sauce and unknown drinks on the table. And a little program that lets the whole world talk for free.

Priidu, the mastermind behind Skype's graphic icons, spotted some similarities between the My pictures of the people at Skype. We are indeed similar in different ways. For example sports like snowboarding, mountain biking and kiteboarding are much more popular at Skype than curling or table tennis. And none of us has a phone on the desk:)

A few weeks ago, Yahoo! launched their [Yodel Anecdotal blog](http://yodel.yahoo.com/). Welcome.

Now when I saw this, I immediately made a strange connection. I'm not sure if it's funny or ironic or what. Just that a few lightyears and web versions ago, we had exactly the following words at the [SkypeOut web site](http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/). (The red wobbly line wasn't part of the original design. It's my own skillful use of the wonderful Paint program to indicate an important part of text.)

> If this was a perfect world, there’d be no yodelling, we wouldn’t be ashamed of our love handles and everyone would be using Skype to talk for free.

But alas. The world isn't perfect, that text got nuked, we still need to pay for calls to phones and there's the Yodel Anecdotal blog now. Go figure. And [read the blog](http://yodel.yahoo.com/), it's good.

A great story in The Economist about [Sten](http://about.skype.com/executiveteam/stentamkivi/) and how we live and work here at Skype.

> Asked for his job title, he looks apologetic. “I think I am director of operations,” he says. “We're not that big on titles.” Most people in his shoes would be boasting. Mr Tamkivi runs Skype, one of the software world's most subversive and fastest-growing businesses.

Continue reading "This week's Economist about life and work at Skype" »

I knew there were the [Hulger phones](http://www.hulger.com), but I didn't know that there are actually "shoulder phone rests" for such handsets. Must have been quite a sales hit when this kind of handset was the only one available, not "retro" as it is these days.

Tallinn, Estonia is a true Skype town if you judge by the bumper stickers. Every once in a while, you spot a Skype-related one. Here's what a visiting colleague had to say... the photos are also his, snapped from a taxi.

> I was in Tallinn on business last week – great city by the way – and was taking a taxi to the Skype offices when I noticed the car in front had a jobs.skype.ee sticker on the back. Now, that to me shows the coolness of working at Skype when someone would stick that on their car!

Would you buy a Skype bumper sticker?

Skype icons have been on display before but never in such large numbers, nor square meters. I believe it's our designers' new favourite wall in our London office. Kind of tucked away but you cannot not notice it when walking around.

If you haven't seen some of these emoticons before then you either didn't know we had them or are not using the latest version of Skype that sports them all (+ some hidden ones). Larger version of the emoticons below.

Continue reading "The emotional wall" »

Mihkel is a Skype developer. Working on the Mac version, no less. He's travelling a bit with his mobile office. A Skype friend in Italy did this mini-interview with him.

**Mihkel, is this you first time in Italy?**

Nope, that's the fourth already. All times by car btw.

**Nice, so the first time you went here you was not able to use Skype right? How do you feel to use Skype to call every one at home for free?**

It's great indeed.

Continue reading "A developer in the bush" »

Skype folks are so busy delighting our users that we get to pack almost half a week into one single day:

We love to work hard, but Ants, our developer support technician, decided to take a few days off. On the very first day of his vacation, this was found in our office:

Join the fun!

Here's an actual door sign from Skype. Spot some irony?

No really... we DO have better quality assurancE and testing (and proofreading) for our software than we have for our door signs.

Today our Tallinn office hall was again loaded with desk and chair components. They are assembling new furniture and shipping old one across various locations, so it's like work live in a major transport/storage hub, not a software company The situation is getting sillier by the day, as we grew past our current office capability ... umm... some three months ago or something. But no fear, we know there will be an end to that as we'll be relocating to some new nice place... some time... really. And it's kind of fun to put up with that. None of us like too corporate or polished stuff anyway.

So until then, I realized I had some old pictures laying around to illustrate the situation. We didn't stage these. These are all real-life settings from a while ago. I don't think it can really get more "startup" than that?

The person on the left was lucky to have a chair. The one on the right, not so much...

Continue reading "The desk and chair situation" »

Here's what Mast at Skype [had to say](http://share.skype.com/sites/et/2006/04/valgustatuse_saabumine.html) about Skype video. (He's an engineer working with new and upcoming Skype gadgets.) Since probably not too many of you read Estonian, here it is in English

-----

Although I work for Skype, I never thought too much of this video thing. However, recently I had an enlightening and you could almost say religious experience with this feature.

Continue reading "The Revelation" »

What do you do when the user count of your creation hits 100 million? Celebrate, obviously.

So we had this little picnic.

Continue reading "The 100 million picnic" »

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to the Skype blog readership. My name is Scott Indrisek, and I handle public relations and user outreach for Skype in the United States. What does this mean, exactly? It means that I get to talk to a fantastic variety of Skypers on a daily basis, from tech-savvy soldiers stationed in Iraq to long distance lovebirds who stay connected from coast to coast. Along with Jaanus, I'll be posting some of the most intriguing stories as I come across them, as well as keeping everyone updated on what the Skype team in the Big Apple is up to. In the meantime, if you've got a unique Skype story you're eager to tell, I'd love to hear from you. I'm excited to be able to share the creative and inspiring ways that our users have been staying connected!

Introducing the Meeting room PRO. No whiteboards. No beamer. No boardroom or desk. No coffee. Just folks, the corridor and beanbags. Helps you get stuff done and discussed quickly as otherwise you'd ache from being in an uncomfortable position for too long

(Or perhaps we were just out of proper meeting rooms.)

These are big days for the whole of Estonia and our Tallinn office too. The winter olympics are huge in the Nordics. We won 3 olympic gold medals in a week, two of them by our skiing queen Kristina Šmigun (but she likes to be called "Kiku"), and just now, a third one by Andrus Veerpalu in men's 15 km. Productivity is horribly down in many offices across Estonia, including Skype Tallinn site, as everyone watches the event congratulations to our champions.

Photo credit: Marko Mumm, Eesti Päevaleht

We're happy that [Skype has contributed its small part in keeping Kiku's family together and informed](http://www.postimees.ee/170206/esileht/sport/192332.php).

> "My mom and sister are very happy for me", said Šmigun whose family in America is watching her Olympic performance over internet.
"I heard that during the competition, they called our neighbours in our home town Otepää with Skype, who then used a tiny webcam to "broadcast" the show," Šmigun told. "The picture was not very legible but they are up-to-date and informed."

Do you remember [Ms Selecta, the caffeine manager](http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2005/11/ms_selecta_caffeine_manager.html)? Apparently even she needs maintenance from time to time. And when developers spot something needs maintenance, they're quick to file it in the bug tracking system. Here's a screenshot from the actual ticketing system which we usually use to track ways to make Skype better for you by squashing bugs and adding new stuff, but occasionally the ticketing has to take more esoteric requests like this one. ("Anum täis" means "Tray full" or something like that.

* what: Guinness Record -- most people calling with Skype on beanbags in a row (see the headsets!)
* when: just this Monday
* where: Skype office
* who: three random Skypers, working hard to bring you the next version

Straight from my inbox this morning.

From: Tallinn office manager
To: all Skype staff
Subject: new hire in Tallinn office

I hereby have the honors to introduce the newest hire to Skype Tallinn office. As of today, you can meet Ms Tiiu Selecta (second from left on the picture below) in our kitchen. We had to move the lasagne-stuffed fridge you all know and love to another corner to make Tiiu some seating room.

This intergalactic-looking colleague is capable of filling itself with water, order fresh beans from corner shop to ease our other office assistants' load and hold intelligent conversations with you while waiting for hot beverages offered in wide assortment.

There are some embedded development and usability test tasks for new hires in preparation by respective teams. As result, new shiny icons and SkypeNet compatibility will be there, with release date scheduled to Q1.

Welcome.

PS: the two gentlemen are likely to see a harrasment suit in their mail soon, if you inspect the picture closely.

Lester just posted a [video](http://www.skypelearningzone.co.uk/video/skypeenabledhardwaremr.wmv) with Skype's Gadget Inspector James Peck in the [Skype Learning Zone](http://share.skype.com/directory/learning_zone_%28video%29/), which I thought is educational not only for developers, but for a wider audience as well.

In this video you see and hear an overview of how the Skype device certification and partnership works, and get to see some cool actual gadgets, like the recent Linksys phone, as well as some other available and upcoming stuff -- a speakerphone, a Bluetooth headset, the noisecancelling [Jawbone headset](http://www.jawbone.com/) and more.

For more in-depth developer info, [subscribe](http://share.skype.com/sdpblog.xml) to our [Developer Blog](http://share.skype.com/sdp).

We wouldn't be where we currently are without our partners. Although you as the user may only see "Skype", we have many partners who help us be great, while at the same time maximising their own business through opportunities provided by working with Skype.

We have many different types of partners: technology, hardware, software, online, access, retail... the list goes on. And it was difficult to navigate the opportunities. Up to now, at least: we have a brand new partner page, at [skype.com/partners](http://www.skype.com/partners), that outlines the options you have to work with us. So if you have a great portal business in some country, or would like to resell Skype certified products, or are operating a WiFi hotspot that you'd like to be Skype-friendly, or... then just visit the [new partner page](http://www.skype.com/partners) to find out how you can work with us.

Let's look back at what really happened a week ago, how it was received within Skype and what we make of it. First things first, we now have a [FAQ](http://www.skype.com/company/news/ebayfaq.html) to answer some of the questions we received through the past week.

Continue reading "Skype+eBay: a retrospect from within" »

Skypers all over the world are big into sports. There aren't many things we haven't tried (wife carrying might be one of them) but one of the biggest things with our Tallinn crew is Xdream adventure racing. If you've never heard of it before then it's an event where teams of three people pass through checkpoints by trekking, biking and canoeing and complete special challenges. Important part is navigation as there are no fixed courses and you have to find your own way from one checkpoint to the next one. Adventure races vary in length with a course that might take 4-5 hours seen as "sprint".

A few weekends ago, the most recent race in Estonia was held and total of 7 Skype teams participated. It was my first time so I wasn't very sure what to expect but the whole thing turned out to be great fun. To achieve the best results it helps to have strong all-around team - one person to navigate, other to be the "engine" in the canoe and third one to be good with steering, someone to keep up the morale etc. I found out that good navigation skills were more important than anything else and it doesn't really matter if you cover one section of the course a bit slower than competitors, next section could be where you win everything back.

I cannot wait for the next event Below is a selection of photos from the last race here in Estonia. If you'd like to read more about adventure racing then Wikipedia has a thorough post about its' history, rules, equipment etc.

Continue reading "Skypers and adventure racing" »

Sometimes we hear people think that Skype is a rockstar-only company and that you must have three PhD-s to work here. This is most certainly NOT the case. Many of us are just starting their career or are here for the summer as interns. This is also true for Steve, today's featured staff, who came to Skype as part of a student exchange program.

Download this interview as [MP3](http://download.skype.com/share/audio/stevezhang.mp3) or [OGG](http://download.skype.com/share/audio/stevezhang.ogg) (length 4:22).

Continue reading "Steve Zhang" »

It's the first birthday of SkypeOut today. As [the news from a year ago](http://www.skype.com/company/news/2004/skype1.html) said:

> July 27, 2004. Today Skype launched its free, Skype for Windows Version 1.0 software, which includes SkypeOut, enabling Skype users to pre-pay and call any phone number in the world at highly competitive local rates.

It's been an eventful year and SkypeOut has served us and you well. Happy birthday, SkypeOut! And to celebrate, we got some goodies for you. We're lowering prices to many destinations. We have to increase some a bit, too, but those don't kick in until September 1. (Lower prices are effective immediately.)

For more info, see the [press release](http://www.skype.com/company/news/2005/skypeout_ratechange.html), [service announcement with price change details](http://support.skype.com/?_a=announcements&_m=details&_i=18) and [SkypeOut rates page](http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/).

Continue reading "Happy 1st birthday SkypeOut! The present: lower prices." »

We have a very active French community among Skype staff. And as July 14 (whoops... had June 14 here initially, thanks guys for pointing it out) is an important day for France (why? well go read the history books ), we had a Bastille day organized by ze hard-working Skype French Sans-Culottes featured on this picture.

Continue reading "Ze Bastille Day" »

There are bad things happening in London at this time, you may have heard about the bomb explosions on London's public transport network. Many of you are asking us through all channels if we are safe. Quick answer: yes, we are. Some of Skype people are/were very close to the tragedies but no one got hurt. Many thanks for your concern.

Skype is working and our services are operating as usual.

Tip - Add additional information to the name field in your Skype profile to add additional information about your whereabouts or status. Helpful to let others know your timezone, location, or even that you are ok in a moment like this.

On the weekend of June 18-19, the Skype team had two concurrent outing events in different parts of the world. We do have them once in a while with the engineering crew, but having two at the same time doesn't happen that often.

Continue reading "Sailing and hiking" »

Today's Featured Staff is Dirk who works as a mobile tester in Skype's Quality Assurance group. These people make sure that our releases work as expected and don't contain any nasty bugs. Also, they work with technologies and features that may not reach the public for many months to come, until we're sure they're ready and work well.

Download this interview as [MP3](http://download.skype.com/share/audio/dirkroethig.mp3) or [OGG](http://download.skype.com/share/audio/dirkroethig.ogg) (length 8:10).

Continue reading "Dirk Röthig" »

Michael Jackson is Skype's Director of Operations. As you hear in the interview, it has nothing to do with surgeries or pop singing, but it does have a lot to do with ensuring that Skype is continuously available to our global user community.

Michael is also a proud member of the *"People visiting Skype Tallinn office"* community -- his home is in Denmark, but he spends a lot of time, days and often weeks, in Tallinn, working with the operations, systems administration, customer support and other groups of people here.

Download this interview as [MP3](http://download.skype.com/share/audio/michaeljackson.mp3) or [OGG](http://download.skype.com/share/audio/michaeljackson.ogg) (length 10:15).

Continue reading "Michael Jackson" »

Video is a massive thing, even though Skype doesn't have it yet. It's no secret that we are working on it and keeping a close eye on many of the video add-ons already out there for Skype. So today's Featured Skyper talk is with one of the Skype video developers, Andrei Jefremov, who spends his days tinkering in our Research Labs on core video and sound technologies.

Photo by Siim Teller

Continue reading "Andrei Jefremov" »

Stefan is Skype's Director of Product and highlights aspects about his work at Skype and also experiences as a regular daily user in this interview. The whole Product function at Skype encompasses all the people responsible for bringing out new versions of the software and making sure you're getting a high-quality enjoyable experience, and Stefan is the one leading them.

This interview is also the first in our *"People visiting Skype Tallinn office"* series -- Stefan is based in London, but spends a lot of his time in Tallinn where all of the engineering happens, where we also took the pictures.

Download this interview as [MP3](http://download.skype.com/share/audio/stefanoberg.mp3) or [OGG](http://download.skype.com/share/audio/stefanoberg.ogg) (length 7:05).

Continue reading "Stefan Öberg" »