Skype around the world

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.

It's always good to hear of people making good use of Skype, and I thought I'd bring you this presentation from Doug Kaye and Paul Figgiani from the Conversations Network.

They offer some advice on recording interviews using Skype, and invite you to join the discussion over at the Conversation Network forum.

Once again, Lars Plougmann comes up with the goods, with this beautiful photo of baby video conferencing.

Two years on, has the baby phone materialised?

Earlier this week I got in touch with Brenda Dayne, who records a regular [podcast about knitting](http://www.cast-on.com/) — she and her team from around the world use Skype to keep in touch, to plan their episodes and share files.

**Peter:** Who do you Skype with?

> The Green Room is a private chat that began between four podcasters - Dave from the [Chub Creek Podcast](http://homepage.mac.com/chubcreek/), Sage from [Quirky Nomads](http://www.quirkynomads.com/), Syne, who hosts [Weavecast](http://www.weavecast.com/), and myself — initially as a way of exchanging ideas, tech tips, and audio content. We've since added several other podcasters to the chat - Heather Ordover, from [Craftlit](http://craftlit.blogspot.com/), and Christa Giles from [CristaKnits](http://www.christagiles.com/podcast.html) — as well as a few people who started as podcast listeners, and who were eventually roped into creating content for our podcasting cartel.

**Peter:** And what do you talk about?

> It's pretty much a free-for-all, topic-wise, as we've come to know each other better. We all meet five days a week, for about an hour, as a way of gearing up for our work days. Time zones are an issue, but we manage — some of us are night owls, other's early risers, and we've fallen into a nice rhythm. Podcast production is still a hot topic, but we also bounce a lot of ideas around, help each other draft responses to listener email and comments, [share images and short audio clips](http://www.skype.com/download/features/filetransfer/), pass along interesting links, you name it. We also use the [conference call](http://www.skype.com/download/features/conferencecalling/) feature to record group audio.

**Peter:** And if I want to find out more about Cast On…

> You should [take a look at the site](http://www.cast-on.com/), and [subscribe to the podcast](http://www.cast-on.com/subscribe-to-cast-on/).

**Peter:** Thanks Brenda

News from the Republic of Ireland: Suzy Byrne teasingly points out that [Fianna Fáil now have a Skype name](http://www.mamanpoulet.com/?p=130) ([fiannafailhq](skype:fiannafailhq?call)) — does this mean that they’ll roll it out across the nation if they’re re-elected?

Perhaps this is where Skype could make inroads into the public sector; while government departments are no doubt tied in to long term IT contracts, the politicians who run them have much more freedom.

Maybe our representatives in Westminster, Holyrood, Cardiff and Stormont could be persuaded to follow [Fianna Fáil](http://www.fiannafail.ie/)’s lead — to be honest, it’d be better if each representative had a Skype name, but one’s a good start

Does your MP, MSP or AM have a Skype name?

I was interested to see that the Trade and Industry staff at the [British Embassy in Tallinn](http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/estonia) use Skype — appropriate, really, given that Skype’s home is in the very same city.

The Estonian government are big users of Skype, but perhaps that’s unsurprising. [This post from Shel Israel’s blog](http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2006/10/stem_shares_sky.html) highlights the extraordinary openness with which they conduct everyday business.

In the UK, though, Skype isn’t as big a part of government service provision as perhaps it should be. Come to think of it, wouldn’t it be handy if we could instant message people too?

> Hi, I’m just doing my tax return, and was wondering whether I should include this bit in box 4. Yes? Great, thanks.

Which government department would you Skypeify first?

China, as any internet user knows, is about to take over the world. It's just a shame that Mandarin is such a devilishly hard language to learn... all those characters, you see.

But I digress. Latest evidence of China's almightiness is its fervent enthusiasm for Skype, which has signed up almost 100,000 new Chinese users a day over the past three months.

Skype's partner in China, Tom Online, now has at least 23.5 million registered users in China – and analysts reckon that could be a wild underestimate.

Chinese legal barriers mean that SkypeOut isn't available there, and Skype's chief exec Niklas Zennström recently admitted it could be two years before China's government changes its mind. When and if SkypeOut does become available there, just watch those numbers shoot up again. Now that's popularity.

Quick! Move to France! The people dubbed "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" by piqued Americans have even more reason to feel smug, because until the end of 2006 they can make unlimited SkypeOut calls to landlines within France for free. La telephonie gratuite indeed.

Skype tried out a similar scheme earlier this year in the US, where it was a huge success. Let's hope the UK is next on the list. Let's really, really hope the UK is next on the list. Memo to Skype: make it happen, and the beers are on me.

There's much excitement on t'other side of the ocean about WebMessenger Mobile for Skype, a free service that allows US users to make Skype calls whilst they're away from their home PC - without having to worry about finding a WiFi hotspot.

The free service acts as a bridge between your mobile and Skype on your PC, which needs to be online for the call to work. Then you can make and receive calls anywhere in north America using a compatible mobile, including BlackBerry devices and Palm handhelds. There's a $3.95/month premium version, too, which lets Skypers access hundreds of contacts and indulge in some four-way conferencing whilst they're out and about.

Our first thought upon hearing that Taipei has rolled out a city-wide WiFi telephony network was not "bravo Taipei, get in there" or even "Taipei? Oh don't tell me, it's... it's..." (it's in Taiwan). Our first thought was, "Can we have what they're having?"

The short answer is yeah but no but... well, not yet.

The long answer is that the technology is there, but issues of WiFi hot-spot quality need to be ironed out before WiFi calling is a workable reality in UK cities.

Continue reading "Taipei gets WiFi Skype on the move" »