Skype in the US

KOTA reporter Rachel Embler, ABC's KOTA Territory News in Rapid City, S.D., discusses with South Dakota bloggers how the Internet is playing a growing role in reaching voters, especially of the youthy persuasion.

She interviews a couple bloggers via Skype.

Ater reporting earlier in the primaries on how Obama's campaign was using Skype, I was starting to think the Dems had a monopoly on tech. (Look, Obama put out the word on VP choice Joe Biden via text message.)

But the KOTA reporter spoke with a GOP blogger using Skype.

Today is Skype's 5th birthday and candidate John McCain's 72nd. Hope McCain's grandchildren called him on Skype.

Note to the McCain campaign: Send us a photo op of John McCain on a Skype Video call and we'll share it in this space.

Same goes to the Obama camp.

On the main blog, CEO Josh Silverman shares his reflections on the past and his vision of Skype's future--on Skype's 5th Birthday.

He tips his hat to Skype founders Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis and the original Estonian programmers: "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."

He says: "When I think of the future, I think of Skype as liquid communication. Instead of being condemned to a frozen shape like the telephone, it will flow into any device whenever you want and wherever you are. And, like water can turn into ice or steam, Skype can shift its form to match what you need at the moment: from voice to video to IM to SMS to filesharing.

"Skype blurs the line between the real and the virtual. It bends space and cuts through time. Today, when a conversation wants to be had, technology is not the bottleneck. But technology isn't the goal either. There's no question in my mind about what stands at the heart of the communication revolution. So, as we celebrate the first five years of Skype, let's raise a toast to the human desire to connect."

Back in late 1995, I was new on the tech beat at the Chicago Sun-Times.

I asked to cover the Net because I was tired of the medical beat. My bosses knew I was an early Net adopter so they set me loose to cover the emerging tech. I cover the pre-boom Internet, the dot-com boom and the dot-bomb, and then on to Web 2 and beyond before I left the paper in January.

Voice on the Net was among the technologies that intrigued me back then and does to this day, both personally and as Skype's US blogger.

The problem back in those days was you couldn't easily connect with friends and family. It was a bit like ham radio.

I remember using some early tech and speaking with a guy who claimed to be on a hammock on a Hawaiian beach. Another guy claimed to be in Austria. So they said.
Then, new tech came along, with an interface resembling a cell phone, that enabled you to put your IP address in as a substitute for a phone number.

It was a step in the right direction. But it was hard to get those friends and family on the line unless they were nerds.

There were always problems with sound quality. Echo. Echo. We were still on dial-ups modems in those days.

The big breakthrough came with broadband service. And of course Skype arrived five years ago and changed the game.

Regular audio calling is a great leap forward with Skype, with hi-fi sound quality. You can use cordless Wi-Fi phones so you don't even need your computer on to make a call. And you can make Skype calls over a regular phone; so you don't have to use headsets (though personally I prefer them).

Plus, you can use SkypeOut to connect at reasonable rates with people on old-fashioned phones. Video Calling on Skype will expand horizons further as people become accustomed to seeing the people with whom they are speaking.

Skype, with its low rates, has expanded my world, enabling me to do interviews with sources around the world for international and domestic publications. If I had to pay standard phone rates, I wouldn't be able to afford to do some of the work I do, interviewing people in Europe, Africa, South America, Australia and Asia.

Skype, which on Aug. 29th is five years old, has changed my world--and I hope yours--for the better over the past five years.

The barriers of cost that once made global calling prohibitive are falling in the Skype world.
Thanks to Skype calling and IM, I am in touch with friends and family in Western and Eastern Europe, Australia and the Middle East. While in Peru earlier this summer, I helped new friends call their families back in the US; they were thrilled, grinning ear to ear.

As I rode on a bus to Stonehenge recently, I was chatting on a 3 Skypephone to a friend in Tucson. In London, I talked on the wireless phone to a friend back in Chicago. I hope this will come to the USA, along with other mobile technologies

More changes will be coming as the technology expands and improves.
Happy 5th Birthday, Skype. Many happy returns.

People just want to talk. That's their nature--even at 30,000 feet.

They have been trying to end-run the blocks on American Airlines' new Gogo Internet with wings service and make calls with Skype and other Voice on Internet Protocol services.

They've had varying degrees of success since the service took wing on Aug. 20.

Be warned that American and Aircell, the provider of the in-flight service for American and soon other airlines, don't approve. They will try to stop you.

American allows Skype IM, but not Skype or audio or video calls.

Brenda Chroniak, spokeswoman for Aircell, sent me an e-mail to explain the position of Aircell and American:

"It is against American's policy and Gogo's terms of service to use VoIP. Aircell has multiple protocols and practices in place to prevent the use of VoIP. Obviously, it is extremely difficult to stop every instance of VoIP but Aircell is monitoring and working constantly to enforce American's policy and Gogo's terms of service."

So the VoIP police are sniffing out intruders.

Chroniak said the point of the exercise is to protect the comfort of other passengers.

I can understand that. It's plenty noisy at 30,000 feet already. Some people won't want to overhear people talking on the phone.

Still, over the years there have been various schemes with in-flight phones, which probably didn't catch on with masses because of the expense.

But I've haven't had a response to my proposal of Skype and non-Skype sections on airplanes.

American, Aircell, any thoughts?

Phil Wolff at Skype Journal is observing the fifth anniversary of Skype with a series: "What Skype Means to Me."

Here's a sampler:

Bill Vick, co-author of "Linkedin for Recruiting" said Skype "opened up new worlds to me and the many others I network with." He uses Skype Video to interview thought leaders in his field. Having conducted 60 interviews, he found that his subjects, most of whom were new to Skype, had no problem learning the technology. In fact, he said: "Without exception they are all incorporating Skype video into their business model."

He said some of his interviews have generated thousands of views.

Andrew Y Ng, of San Francisco, writes how he started using Skype to talk with his girlfriend who was in London for the summer and then started using Skype for IM and for group chats. "I was amazed how I could get to know someone across the globe so well via Skype," he said. As vice president of technology at OnMyList.com, he used Skype group chat as a collaboration tool. Now as a freelance consultant, he and his partner in Washinton, D.C., get "70% of the work done together via Skypevoice chat and iChat screen sharing. We would have Skype voice chats for over 12 hours and it works flawlessly."

Ng concludes: "So what Skype means to me? It means staying closer to my closest friends and family, it means saving cost while running my own consulting practice, it means getting things done and collaborating effectively."

Keep watching Skype Journal's series.

We had the scoop last week.

Now TVWeek shares more details on how "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" is undergoing a "facelift," including use of Skype in expert lifelines.

TVWeek's Chris Pursell reported:

"Skype will provide an online video connection for the syndicated strip's new 'Ask the Expert' lifeline, where the contestant will be given access to experts on any question past the $1,000 level. "Millionaire" will aim to make available newsmakers, journalists, former "Millionaire" contestants, trivia champs, politicians, doctors, professors and others.

"Millionaire" executive producer Michael Davies told TVWeek: "Skype has proven to be the perfect partner for our new 'Ask the Expert' lifeline. With Skype, we've not only found an interesting and visually compelling way to offer contestants help in the hot seat, but we've done it in a really modern way, using new technology that's becoming increasingly popular."

Among the experts will be Bill Nye (airing Sept. 8-12) and Ogi Ogas, a former "Millionaire" contestant from Boston who walked away with $500,000 in winnings (airing Sept. 15-19).

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," which ranks in top three game shows in syndication as it enters its seventh season, also is adding new graphics and a heightened tension level with the addition of a time limit for answers.

"Most successful game shows have changed and morphed their look over time, and I just think it was time for us to do the same thing," Davies said. "Our show was always designed to be the most modern game show on television, and the timing was right to take our unique format and look and evolve them into something even more exciting."

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