You may have seen a note about Skypecasts in one of my recent posts. But because there are still some access problems, it wouldn't be fair to have any mentions of it buried deep in the blogwell. For the freshest information on this, see Ray's continually updated entry on Heartbeat, but here's the situation in a nutshell:

* Access to Skypecasts is intermittent for many users
* Those of you using Skype for Mac will not be able to join Skypecasts due to a problem with software-version recognition in the Skypecasts directory

We're sorry about this. It annoys us too. But believe you me, our engineers are working hard at their ironing boards and hopefully, them wrinkles will be gone before you can memorize the lyrics to the Spanish national anthem.

Update: The problem is now fixed. Wheew! Just be sure to use Skype 2.6 for Mac, as Skypecasts won't work with earlier versions. On the other hand, the sound quality is so much better with the new audio engine that there's no reason to doggedly try to use older releases anyway.

Our engineers have made Skypecasts sound better than ever before. And we want to make sure you enjoy them more than ever before.

Which is why we're asking users to upgrade their Skype software. Windows users should download Skype for Windows 3.2 or later, and Mac users should run at least Skype 2.6 for Mac.

Why do all that? As of June 13, older versions will simply no longer be compatible with Skypecasts. Sounds like a bummer, but it's actually a good thing. The whole Skypecast experience will be better. And upgrading -- even just for the hell of it -- should make everyone feel good and fashionable anyway..

Update: We've found that software-version recognition in the skypecast.com directory needs better glasses. When you are in the directory and click to join a Skypecast, Skype 2.6 for Mac won't be recognized as such and will be interpreted as an older version. We're working to fix this bug

I took a few days off. When I came back, people greeted me with [this](http://www.nowpublic.com/skype_and_the_freedom_of_speech) [thing](http://radio-utopie.de/index.php?themenID=391) about how Skype restricts freedom of speech about political topics on Skypecasts.

Conspiracy theories are cool, but as it often happens, this one is simply not true. We don't filter out political content in Skypecasts. On the contrary, they're a great global platform to discuss the world's current topics with anyone in English and other languages and we encourage this in every way.

The gory truth of why people may not have been able to register a Skypecast is that they may have hit a technical system bug that may have prevented some people from starting a Skypecast. Sorry about that. We get these from time to time and yes, it's unfortunate, but it has nothing to do with moderation. I suggest that you bookmark the [Heartbeat site](http://heartbeat.skype.com/) for future reference -- if we have major trouble in any part of our systems, we'll post updates there.

As for Skypecasts guidelines, please take a look at our [Community Guidelines for Skypecasts](https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/guide/community_guidelines_popup.html) and [Skype Etiquette](http://www.skype.com/company/legal/terms/etiquette.html), that define the guidelines for how we view and define things. Among other things, it says:

> Skype reserves the right to ban temporarily or permanently users who breach these guidelines.

We have found that it makes sense to develop these guidelines and policies together with our community, rather than trying to come up with a definitive list of fixed keywords or something like that. We rely on you as the community to report things that you find objectionable -- you have a "Report as inappropriate" button for each Skypecast. Please use it if you find objectionable content. And yes, I know we have taken down Skypecasts as a result of these reports, but instead of politics, they have been about grossly abusive or illegal content or images.

We are really pleased to announce the release of Skype 3.0 beta for Windows today. This new release has a real community focus with Public Chats and Skypecasts.

Public chats are text chats that anyone can create, host and join where Skype users can meet new people and chat about anything they fancy. Join our Skypecasts Public chat to see what it’s all about.

Public chat & Skypecasts complement each other and can work really well together. Public chats are constant text based chats and Skypecasts are scheduled voice calls allowing instant discussion. Find out more about how to use Skypecasts and Public chats.

With Skype 3.0 beta not only can browse Skypecasts starting and on now directly from the Live tab. When you decide to join or host one, the Skypecast itself will run within a separate tab where you have all the host or participant controls to ask for mic, see who the host is and do all those other things you need to do in a Skypecast. Which will make your life much easier.

Plus we’re also moving Skypecasts into beta from its previous preview state at the same time. This brings Skypecasts to another level and is a great starting point to develop more new and exciting features for communities in the next few months.

We would like to thank all of you for your help and your support.

A new release of Skype 2.6 for Windows Public Beta is out yesterday which you can download here. This Public Beta version gives Skypecast Hosts new and improved ways to moderate your Skypecasts directly from the client. Now you can see who is talking, who is waiting to talk and who is just listening and as host, you choose who does what.

There are some known issues in this version with Skypecasts, documented in the changelog.

With your help, this Beta release solves several bugs and we want to thank everyone for their feedback - we can’t do this without you…and we’d love to get your feedback again! Please download this version of Skype, your feedback is much appreciated.

We are delighted to announce that tomorrow Skypecasts will host two great authors, Michael Connelly and Shari Caudron. Skypecasts is a great way for fans to listen to their favourite authors discuss their new books and even get the chance to participate in a Q&A session.

Michael Connelly, who is most notable for his award-winning Detective Harry Bosh series, will talk tomorrow at 17:00 about his new book Echo Park. Michael will read an excerpt of his newest book and take questions from the audience. The first 25 Michael Connelly fans to log on to the Skypecast will receive a signed copy of Echo Park.

Shari Caudron has written several articles and essays for national magazines in the US. She has also written two books, "What Really Happened" and "Who Are You People?” the latter being featured by National Public Radio. It was also nominated as Typepad’s Book of The Month for September. To share your fanatical views with Shari don't hesitate to join this Skypecast tomorrow September 26th at 2PM PT.

For more information about these two Skypecasts on September 26th:

Michael Connelly Skypecasts - 5PM GMT

Shari Caudron Skypecasts - 2PM PT

Ming Campbell, Leader of the UK Liberal Democrats party is hosting a Skypecast tomorrow morning regarding the need for a constitutional reform. This provoking Skypecast will enable people to share their views and opinions in a live debating format and shows how Skypecasts really connects people.

For those who would like to know more about the Liberal Democrat's Taking Power Policy and have the opportunity to ask live questions to Ming, join this exclusive Skypecast tomorrow at 10h15.

From today, the Skype for Windows 2.6 Beta is available, offering easy access to Skypecasts from the new Live tab. You can download it here. This new beta version replaces the preview that you may have tested.

The "Live tab" lists Skypecasts that are on right now, starting soon, how many participants are involved, and a quick way for you to join or listen.

Download Skype for Windows 2.6 now.

Two days ago, we had an interesting Skypecast hosted by Sree Sreenivasan and Vikas Bajaj with another candidate for the post of United Nations Secretary General. This time it was Jayantha Dhanapala, Senior Adviser to the president of Sri Lanka.

As with Shashi Tharoor, Sree and Vikas discussed the role of the UN in a changing world as well as the race for Secretary General.

If you missed the Skypecast, you can listen to it - here.

If you missed last week’s Skypecasts with Shashi Tharoor, UN Under Secretary General for Communications and distinguished author don’t worry! The Skypecast was recorded so you can listen at your leisure.

Shashi Tharoor was interviewed by SAJA Board members Sree Sreenivasan & Vikas Bajaj, about the role of the UN in a changing world and his chances in the race to find Kofi Annan successor as UN Secretary General.

As this Skypecast was recorded, you can still listen to it even if you have missed it live

Shashi Tharoor has worked for the United Nations since 1978 and has been involved in peace keeping operations across the world. Shashi Tharoor is currently running as a candidate for the United Nations Secretary General. Shashi previously worked for Kofi Annan who currently holds this post and is being backed by his native India as successor for the post.

Mr. Tharoor is also a well recognized author having written eight books, as well as numerous articles, op-eds and literary reviews and has also received several journalism and literary awards.

WABC-TV New York’s Technology Guru, Sree Sreenivasan will conduct a Skypecast with Shashi Tharoor. Sreenivasan is Dean at Columbia's School of Journalism, and also serves on the board of South Asian journalist (SAJA), which is a non-profit organization for journalists of South Asian origin.

Mr. Tharoor has previously been named by the World Economic Forum as a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" and this interview will give Skype users a chance to get answers to their most pressing questions in an exclusive Skypecast. Join the Skypecast now.

We are pleased to announced an exclusive Skypecast with Seth Godin, best selling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. Godin is the author of seven books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work.

Godin’s new book, "Small is the new big", is a collection of more than 193 riffs, rants and business ideas that have appeared in Fast Company and on his ever popular blog over the last seven years.

Michael Sippey of Typepad will interview Seth Godin giving fans and followers a chance to hear his ideas first hand. Be quick only the first 100 Skype users will have the opportunity to participate and ask questions. Be ready!

Find out more and join the Skypecast on August 22nd at 10:00 PM (GMT).

Do you want to brush up your presentation skills? Maybe it would be a good idea to join Lisa Marshall's Skypecast. Lisa is a professional presentation coach who has delivered similar programs on improving presentation skills for over 15 years.
It's a really good example of how Skypecasts can be used for education purposes. This presentation is sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and will be about the "Top Ten Tips for Biomedical Presenters". It takes place on August 10th at 6 PM UK time.

For more information about this Skypecast: Top Ten Tips for Biomedical presenters

Photo attributed to kk+ on flickr.com

I'm pleased to welcome David Rivier to the Skype team, who will be looking after the Skypecasts product and community.

Before joining Skype, David worked at Knexus Group, helping global and European companies (mobile operators, banks and car manufacturers) to create and manage their online communities, online social networks and social web initiatives. He has also worked for several start-ups like 2TalkAbout and academici.

David brings a lot of online community experience to Skype, and we're looking forward to his plans for Skypecasts.

To celebrate the launch of his long-awaited book the Long Tail, Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, hosted a Skypecast to let Skype users hear all about the book and his theories on how the world is changing.

Did you miss it? Fear not, we recorded the conversation so you can listen to it.

For webmasters and developers wishing to promote their Skypecasts on their website, check out the latest update of the documentation, now part of our Dev Zone.

Here's a short guide we wrote to hosting your first Skypecast:

1. Choose a subject for your Skypecast

You can host a Skypecast on any subject you’re interested in, from classic cars to learning Japanese; from how to bake banana bread, to watching World Cup matches together. The more interesting your subject, the more participants you’re likely to have for your Skypecast. If you’re having trouble picking just one subject, don’t worry — you can host as many Skypecasts as you want and it’s totally free.

2. Create your Skypecast listing

Visit the Skypecasts directory to create your listing

You’ll be prompted to enter a title and description, this is your opportunity to sell your Skypecast to the audience, explain why they should join and what you’ll be talking about. You’ll also need to add keywords (also known as tags) to allow users to find your Skypecast by searching the directory. These keywords will also determine which syndicated listings your Skypecast appears in. By entering several relevant words to describe your Skypecasts subject, you’ll help users to find your Skypecast and will also ensure your Skypecast gets the best possible promotion.

Don’t forget to make a note of the time of your Skypecast so you remember to sign in and host it and don’t leave your audience waiting in silence.

3. Promote your Skypecast

Promoting your Skypecast will boost the number of participants you have in your discussion making it more lively and interesting for you and your attendees.

There are lots of ways to promote your Skypecast such as emailing friends, posting your Skypecast in a related forum or even adding a HTML snippet or Skypecasts feed to your website or blog.

4. Hosting and Moderating

You may wish to run your Skypecast as an open discussion or a one-way broadcast with questions and answers at the end. Either way, the Skypecasts moderation tools will help you. Once your Skypecast has begun you can mute or unmute selected participants or all participants from the Skypecasts controls.

Muting participants will help to improve call quality for you and your participants. When participants are muted, they can request the microphone if they wish to speak. You can use chat to ask them what they wish to talk about and then pass them the virtual microphone to speak.

If certain participants are being disruptive you can eject them from the Skypecast.

That's all for the guide fow now. If you have any questions or comments, please visit the Skypecasts forum

Photo attributed to miss_rogue on flickr.com

Yet another Skypecasts exclusive - Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine has published his long-awaited book, The Long Tail, based on his infamous magazine article and popular blog by the same name.

To celebrate the launch of the book, Chris is hosting a Skypecast to let Skype users hear all about the book and his theories on how the world is changing and also ask any questions you may have.

The Long Talk looks at how technology has allowed consumer culture to shift away from mass markets with small numbers of hit products, towards more niche products and markets. This change has been related to the effect of technology and the "infinite shelf-space effect" of new distribution mechanisms such as the internet breaking the bottlenecks of broadcast and traditional bricks and mortar retail.

To find out more join the Skypecast on July 24 at 1:30 PM (PST) to hear what Chris has to say.

Sunday 4pm UK time, there will be a Skypecast discussion of the basics and inner workings of Skype as well as clever ways to use it for business, family and socialising by the authors of Skype for Dummies.

We've written a great guide to help you promote the Skypecasts you are hosting on your website. It's aimed at webmasters or programmers for now, and describes:

* JSON feeds API
* HTML snippets (coming soon)

Download "Promoting and Integrating Skypecasts"

To make it easier to find popular Skypecasts with lots of people talking, we've added participant counts to Skypecasts listings. Check out what's On Now in Skypecasts.

Do you remember dancing around to MC Hammer, in dangerously oversized trousers? I certainly do. Following the recent story in USA Today that MC Hammer plans to use Skypecasts, we are looking forward to hearing him host more Skypecasts "about issues such as inner-city murder rates, using [his] songs as an entry point."

Skypecast listing, for those of you that missed it: MC Hammer Talks about new digital album

For more Hammer action, check out his blog, Look3X

Photo taken from flickr.com

It's been a while since the last Skypecasts blog post, since we've been slaving away on some new controls for moderators and participants:

Listening:

Waiting to speak:

Speaking:

Hosting:

Hopefully these give you an idea of how the new controls will work. Basically, they're much more integrated to the Skype client, with some big usability improvements. We're planning to deploy these in the next release of Skype for Windows, coming very soon.

Please let me know what you think and ask any questions in the forums.

Yesterday we launched localised Skypecasts. You can now browse the Skypecasts directory to see listings and help text in your language.

• To change the listings so they only appear in your language, click on Options from the page listing Skypecasts On Now, Starting Soon, etc.

• To change the language of the help text, click on your language in the footer, under "Skype in your country and language".

• To create a Skypecast in your language, simply select it from the list on the Create a Skypecast page.

Your feedback on this feature would be much appreciated. Please try to create and view listings in the language (or languages!) that you speak.

Some improvements to localisation coming soon:

• We'll be adding language autodetection soon, so Skypecasts shows listings in your language without you having to visit the Options page.

• There are currently 2 weeks of Skypecasts already scheduled, that are not tagged by language. For example, a Japanese Skypecast created last week, will show up, even if you ask to only see "Swedish" ones. These will disappear in 2 weeks, once all the scheduled Skypecasts have taken place.

Visit the Skypecasts forums to leave feedback.

There's some great live content here on Skypecasts, but once you miss it, it's gone... One very common request is the ability for the host to record their Skypecast, and distribute to their audience as an MP3 or podcast.

We've had some discussion on our forums on easy ways to record a Skypecast (or indeed, any Skype call), so that it can be uploaded to your website as an MP3 or podcast. Since Skypecasts does not yet have built in recording, I've summarised the third party software solutions below:

• Audio Hijack Pro (Mac OS X) - Not specifically for Skype, but a general sound recording and editing tool. Here's a quote from our forum: "I use [Audio Hijack Pro] to record our podcast: http://fourguys.libsyn.com or on iTunes under "Four Guys Walk Into a Bar.... AHP lets you incorporate high- and low-pass filters to get rid of ambient noise and hiss. It lets you record in lossless so that you can edit and only downmix to mp3 when finished. It gives you filters to drop the volume automatically if the [Skypecast] is too loud, and (my favorite) it has a plugin that lets you "create" stereo from mono, which gives the sound a bit more depth. All of these are easy to set up and intuitive. It costs $35 but is worth every penny."

• HotRecorder (Windows) - Free trial, or $19.95 to purchase. Another quote fro our forums: "I've had very good experience with using HotRecorder since it records the audio from Skype differently from every other app I've seen out there. I don't quite know how it works, but it only records audio from your microphone in one audio channel (say, the left side of a stereo track) and the audio ONLY FROM SKYPE in the other channel. Quite nifty when recording a conversation with IMs going and everything to have all that other audio not pick up in the recording. They have a free version that records to a proprietary format, but if you purchase it you can convert that proprietary file to WAV format for use in Audacity."

• Pamela (Windows) - New in version 2.0 Professional or Business Edition (from $24.95) is the ability to record a Skypecast, or any Skype call. Pamela is a Skype Certified product.

• PrettyMay (Windows) - New in version 1.0.2.0beta. Pretty May is currently free, according to their website. The developer says: "PrettyMay allows you to record skypecasts simply, and the audio will be saved as mp3 or wav format in separate track which you selected. You can also broadcast audio (mp3 or wav format) in Skypecasts."

If you've had any experiences with these, or other solutions, please let us know on the forum.

Just a reminder that if you do intend to record your Skypecast, it is a legal requirement for you to inform participants that they're being recorded. I suggest putting "(recorded)" at the end of the title of your listing, so it will be shown in the directory before people join, and also in the control window when they are speaking.

For some great tips and help on how Skypecasts works, check out a workshop the Skypecasts team gave to the eBay community in May:

eBay Workshop: Bring Internet Conversations to Life with Skypecasts - May 18

Topics covered were:

• What are Skypecasts?
• Examples of Skypecasts
• Finding a Skypecast
• Participating in a Skypecast
• Creating a Skypecast
• Promoting your Skypecast
• Hosting your Skypecast

We also ran the first ever live, spoken Q&A for an eBay Community Workshop, using a Skypecast. Skypecasts about Skypecasts are cool.

A lot of people have been asking me about viewing listings for Skypecasts in their favourite RSS reader (my personal choice is http://www.bloglines.com). This lets you check out what's coming up on Skypecasts, for topics of interest to you, in a convenient way, alongside your other news feeds or emails.

We have a link on the Skypecasts homepage, which lets you "Subscribe to this page" and receive a feed of Featured Skypecasts. Since Featured Skypecasts are only those from specific partners of Skype, you'll get more listings if you search the entire directory. There's some hidden functionality for the slighty more technical users:

Check out this forum post where I've documented the our RSS feeds:
http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=54365

Web 2.0 ahoy!

For UK residents, especially those who like voyeurism, you might like to join srobesky's Big Brother Skypecast tonight:

Join in this discussion while we watch Big Brother UK live. Make fun of all the housemates while you watch it live! Website: http://www.channel4.com/bigbrother/

Will Mikey and Grace take things one step further?

Hello, welcome to the shiny new Skypecasts product blog. Skypecasts is a new way to a new way to have conversations with people across the world who share your interests.

As many of you know, we launched Skypecasts to the world as a "preview" product a few weeks ago. You can see the official announcement and a short description of Skypecasts over in the main Skype Beta blog.

In the last few weeks, we've been gathering some great feedback from users and partners, including several keen Skypecasters who also work at Skype. You can join the lively product discussion in the Skypecasts forum. We've also been making many improvements behind the scenes, which we'll be releasing next week. Our main project right now is the full localisation of the directory and controls window in time for the World Cup in early June. This will mean Skypecasts will be in your language, and you can chose to only browse and join Skypecasts in a language you understand. I'll be sure to join some Chinese Skypecasts to brush up on my Mandarin, but typically I only want to see listings in English.

Finally, to introduce myself. My name is Dan Houghton, and I am the Product Manager for Skypecasts. You may see me on the forums as strzelecki.

Join a Skypecast now