Skype Around the World

Paul Devlin, five-time Emmy Award-winner and Independent Spirit Award nominee, has been doing some creative financing in the making of his latest work, Blast!, about cosmologists launching a special telescope to the top of the atmosphere via a high-altitude balloon. (Blast is short for Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope.)

He invited his supporters to help finance Blast! for as little as $19.95 as "Blast! Participants," who have access to deleted scenes and production update videos to $40,000 for "Blast! Adventure Participants," who can host a lecture and get a guest lecture from the director and the lead scientist.

The Independent Documentary Association (IDA) wanted Devlin to join a "DOC U " panel scheduled for Monday in LA: "Creative Financing: What's the Deal?"

However, IDA board member and filmmaker Sara Z. Hutchison said Devlin was tied up in France on an assignment.

But she said Peter Broderick, president of Paradigm Consulting and moderator of the panel, and Sandra Ruch, IDA executive director, were aware that Skype had been used last May at the Cannes Film Festival, connecting some Hollywood types to a meeting in France.

James Cameron (Academy Award-winning director of Titanic, Aliens, The Terminator, etc.) and cinematographer Vince Pace participated in a 90-minute session from their Hollywood studio via a live Skype video call to talk about the stereoscopic camera they developed and are using to film the 3D movie Avatar.

So thanks to creative communications, Devlin will be joining the panel Monday from France via a Skype Video call. (Other panelists include Broderick; Jim Gilliam, Brave New Films; Danae Ringlemann, IndieGoGo; Jill Sobule, recording artist.)

Hutchison said many in the IDA community are familiar with Skype, especially "taking a meeting on Skype" and holding IDA committee meetings on Skype audio calls.
"People use Skype all the time," she said.

Video is a nice addition for the visual artists.

This is Skype's latest foray into the world of documentaries. Last April, a documentary came out about a blind adventurer who used Skype to "see."

Heading out to the ruins in the remote Incan town of Ollantaytambo, about 75 kilometers from Cuzco, Peru,"the navel of the navel" in the Incan worldview, I spotted an Internet cafe on the main square.

My wife Judi and I along with our yoga teachers decided to climb the ruins and on the way back go into the Internet cafe.

The teachers wanted to check their e-mail. But I wanted to introduce them to the wonders of Skype.

I struck up a conversation with Carlos Danz, the owner. Carlos' business may be based deep in the ancient Sacred Valley, but he is a man of modern communications.

I asked him what he thought of Skype.

"It's killing me," he semi-joked.

Continue reading "Good karma for Skype along the Inca Trail" »

I'd like to tell you about an opportunity for the entire Skype community to get involved in an important Internet community event.

OneWebDay is an Earth Day for the Internet that takes place each September 22nd. 2008 is the third OneWebDay. This year, OneWebDay is focusing attention around the world on the importance of the internet to political participation.

Skype's own Christopher Libertelli has joined the cause as one of 100 OneWebDay ambassadors. On each of the 100 days leading up to September 22nd, a different ambassador is reaching out to his or her community about OneWebDay.

We're encouraging people to talk (and do something) about internet issues that worry them - censorship, the digital divide and inadequate connectivity, in general.

The idea behind OneWebDay is to create a platform for a global constituency that cares about the future of the internet. We make progress when we make things visible, and with OneWebDay we're showing that this global constituency exists.

For more information about OneWebDay, check out its website, or have a look at the OneWebDay starter kit for keen participants.

When we last checked in on the Skype Nomad, our intrepid traveler was just setting off on her 33-day, 'round the world journey to test Skype mobility. She was in "perpetual motion"--always on the move, with no hotels.

On Friday, Rebecca Campbell, 26, a copywriter from London, landed in New York, where she planned to check out Times Square and take a double-decker bus tour around the Big Apple.

She came to New York after spending a couple days in California. She was in San Francisco, where she rolled out in an RV with a non-stop talking rapper named Joel who took her to Disneyland. You can read the Skype Nomad's blog for more details.

Continue reading "Skype Nomad's Excellent Adventure in the USA" »

The Washington Post's The Trail blog describes Barack Obama's "International Following."

Shailagh Murray notes: "The World Wants Obama Coalition of international and U.S. expatriate supporters has turned into a booming marketplace of campaign-related outreach -- mostly involving people who are not eligible to vote in the United States but who are transfixed by the Obama candidacy."

There are Facebook campaigns. After all the Man from Illinois has been a major presence with zillions of friends in Facebook. There are online photo albums.

And there are instructions on how to use Skype for get-out-the-vote campaigns back in the USA.

The instructions read, "Start by explaining who you are, and asking if they would be happy to talk, for example: 'Hi, I'm Justin from London, England, and I'm part of an international movement supporting Senator Obama. I can't vote in this election, but if you have a few minutes I'd love to talk to you about how a President Obama would improve America's standing in the world.'"

Meanwhile, we reported on Silicon Valley for Obama's use of Skype to reach out to voters.

Equal time statement: If anyone from the McCain and Clinton camps is using Skype, let us know. We'll rock the vote for them too.

Just to introduce myself. I am Howard Wolinsky, your friendly neighborhood blogger from Chicago. I recently left the Chicago Sun-Times, where I was a tech writer and before that a medical writer. I was among the first journos to cover the AIDS crisis and also among the first to cover the internet.

Check me out at GapersBlock, a popular Chicago blog run by Andrew Huff, a former student of mine at the University of Chicago.

I have long been a fan of internet communications—going back to the geeky "internet telephony" era—and have been a Skype user. As a part-time freelancer, I used Skype to cut my phone bills and to extend my reach for sources to Europe and beyond. Thank you, Skype.

Now as a full-time freelancer, I expect to do more with Skype. I will share my adventures on planet Skype and hope you will do the same.