February 2008

The guys over at the Digital Arts blog set themselves up with some of the latest Logitech webcams and had a go at some international High Quality video calling. They seemed pretty impressed with the results:

> For less than [£100], the Skype-Logitech combination gives you two good-quality Webcams and the ability to have free video chats with your spouse, family members, friends, business colleagues — whomever you want. In particular, I strongly recommend the Skype-Logitech system for those who travel frequently and would like to make free video calls back home.

If you’re thinking about stepping into the world of video for the first time, you might also like to check out Andrew’s webcam reviews on the Skype Gear blog.

Last year, Skype did rather well in the Webware 100 Awards, and this year, we’d like to ask for your help to propel us up the rankings once again.

Cast your vote for Skype →

For more information about the awards, there’s a video from the Webware team below: (it’s from last year, but it’s still relevant)

As you may have seen in his post over at the main Skype blog, Josh Silverman is to become CEO of Skype.

He’ll start work on the 24th March, and has a few words to say about what he’s got planned:

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.

We’re always on the look out for examples of people using Skype to do good work, and this week I caught up with two people in the healthcare profession who make great use of Skype video calls:

Sarah Whittaker RSHom, Phoenix Homeopathy

Phoenix Homeopathy offers Skype video consultations to patients, and Sarah told me about how Skype’s allowed her to expand her homeopathy practice from the UK across the world:

I find Skype incredibly helpful in my practice: it means that, subject to local laws, I can hold homeopathic consultations with clients worldwide — this sounds obvious, but it's changed the entire feel of my practice from one servicing a local community, to one with clients in Europe and worldwide.

And why video is so important:

The crucial thing is that, with a webcam, using Skype I can see my patients as well as speak with them: this means that I don't lose valuable non-verbal information (physical characteristics, gestures, tics and so on). Phone is fine for chattier and more open patients, but more reticent people often tell me a lot about their case by their body language — I can see if telling me their symptoms is making them upset, for example.

Dr Jules Eden, e-med

e-med also offers Skype video consultations with UK-based GPs, and Jules says the people who benefit most are the disabled and elderly:

We also have a lot of MS sufferers on our books, and for them to have to negotiate public transport or London traffic if wheelchair bound is a nightmare — so Skype is perfect for them.

Do you use Skype to improve people’s lives? If so, do get in touch — it’d be great to hear from you.

The excellent Data Mining blog points out an interesting interactive map on the BBC site of Brits living abroad.

See the full interactive map on the BBC website →

With any luck, some of them might be Skype users, too

Following the resounding thumbs-up we got from the guys at the Conversation Network about using Skype for interviews, I thought I'd share this little nugget from the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum Blog (via the Melcrum Blog) about using Skype to bring speakers in to conferences:

Euan Semple dialled into the conference over Skype and I have to say that the connection robustness was impressive. There was me thinking it was going to be something much more complex, but it wasn’t needed. Very tempted to suggest it as an option for a conference we’re holding in May.

At last July’s media and blogger event in Tallinn, we used Skype to allow people who’d suffered from the same cancelled flight as me to go ahead and give their presentations from London. I’d agree with Alex Manchester at the Melcrum Blog — using Skype like this certainly isn’t complex — but here are three tips to make sure that your Skype conference speaker experiences go smoothly:

• Turn off screensavers, popup alerts and anything else which might obstruct the video in full screen mode — there’s nothing worse than having your speaker’s face obscured by an email or Twitter notification halfway through his or her presentation.

• Make sure the internet connection speed is reasonably high, and avoid using any other high-bandwidth apps at the same time — at July’s media event, we asked attendees to stop running Skype on their laptops while the speakers were presenting in order to make sure the video quality was outstanding.

• Set up a webcam on the computer which you’re running Skype on in the conference room, so that the speaker can see the audience while they’re speaking — this is incredibly helpful for the speaker, as it allows them to gauge the audience’s reaction to what they’re saying.

If you read the main blog, you’ll have noticed Villu’s post earlier about the 3 Skypephone — the excellent news (if a little delayed) that it was highly commended for its innovative approach in the Best Mobile Handset or Device category at the Global Mobile Awards.

The 3 Skypephone (psst — as well as being less than £50 in the new Skype Shop) is linguistically interesting. Or at least it is when we think about freedom.

Free, of course, can mean two things — free in the sense of lack of restriction, liberty, and free in the sense of costing nothing. The 3 Skypephone goes some way to providing both. Okay, it doesn’t let you make calls anywhere in the world (you’ll need a signal for that), and we don’t give them away entirely (though they’re pretty good value). But we like to think it’s a pretty good deal.

For more about freedom, you might want to check out the Stanford Enyclopedia of Philosophy. Or to experience freedom, find a nice beach with a 3G signal

Bonus trivia: I’m pretty sure this is the first occasion on which Skype has run a newspaper ad in the UK, too, though I suspect our friends at 3 might have had something to do with that too…

Photo by *Tom*