Dina Mehta: Skype and VOIP

New Links

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:38:27 GMT

Unfortunately, links to categories, pictures uploaded and permalinks to posts will be broken here, as Radio Userland has closed down.

New Blog URL - http://dinamehta.com/
Subscribe via RSS 2.0 - http://dinamehta.com/feed/
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Comments feed - http://dinamehta.com/comments/feed/

Moving on - New Blog

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:56:59 GMT

This is my last post on this blog. Radio Userland has served me well since I started blogging in 2003. I will post more details on the transition, at my new blog - for now I just wanted to make this announcement, and provide the new url and feeds.

New Blog URL - http://dinamehta.com/
Subscribe via RSS 2.0 - http://dinamehta.com/feed/
Subscribe via Atom - http://dinamehta.com/feed/atom/
Comments feed - http://dinamehta.com/comments/feed/

The new blog will also be called Conversations with Dina - it's just a new blogging platform - but the same old blog! I do hope you continue reading and feeding it.

My old blog will be archived at its old url (http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/) and I will keep the archives going. Stuart, who has worked out the platform for Conversations with Dina on Wordpress has done some neato hacks - one that I love a lot is that the search function will not just search the new blog archives, but also my old Radio blog archives. And he has managed to transfer some of my posts over too. That's so cool!!! Lots more needs doing there ... and that will emerge I'm sure.

Blogspot (and Typepad) blogs blocked by some Indian ISPs

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 08:52:45 GMT

This is so utterly weird. Since yesterday afternoon, I haven't been able to load any Blogspot blogs - they seem to be blocked somewhere. I can get into my Blogger dashboard and post to blogs though. Neha and Mridula have been sleuthing to get to the bottom of this ... if you're in India, do go over to their blogs and help them out.

From Neha's post:

If you are on MTNL or Specranet in India, could you please let me know if blogger.com has been blocked? In fact if you're in India, can you please just let me know if you can access these sites? Thanks.

Update 1 - Dina (Bombay) confirms that she can access only her dashboard on Blogger. She even managed to post to a blog. However she cannot access Blogspot. She's on Reliance Powersufer. Aparna (Calcutta) who is on BSNL can access both the sites.

Update 2 - Over IM, Mridula (Delhi) confirms that her ISP's call centre stated that they have received a letter from the Government, hinting that it has something to do with the block. Dina called up her ISP's call centre and they confirm that there is no blocking or filtering at their end.

Update 3 - Anupa on Sify.net and Rit on Airtel can access. Monica on Tata Indicom confirms that she can post and access Blogspot.com.

Angelo showed me how to access blogspot blogs - "use an open proxy - go to www.hidemyass.com -

type in the blog url (in this case I typed in http://mumbaihelp.blogspot.com/ - type in the validation code, and you should be able to see it." It worked!

Still, this isn't the solution, its a real shame if this is a directive from the Government of India. We must all raise our voices against it.

Update:

This morning, I was checking out some Typepad blogs - same problem as with Blogger blogs. This is what I got from tracert:

C:Documents and SettingsDina Mehta>tracert typepad.com
Tracing route to typepad.com [204.9.178.11]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 192.168.17.1 reports: Destination net unreachable.
Trace complete.

Am really puzzled now ... and wonder what's going on. I just called Reliance Powersurfer again and they tell me that after all my calls yesterday, they checked again and wished to confirm that they were not blocking or filtering any sites themselves. However, the big news from the call centre employee on the line was that they did check and it seems that Blogspot has been blocked by the Ministry of Communication centrally. I asked them for more details, or any sort of confirmation of the same, which they were unable to provide.
Update - July 17

A set of neat tricks to access blocked websites.

A wiki set up by Peter - add your ISP's contact details if you are facing this problem

I have written letters to Powersurfer and to CERT-IN - here's the text:

Dear Sirs,
I am a long term subscriber to Reliance Powersurfer and since the last few days, I have been unable to access several blog sites. Have run tracerts on them and they show destination unreachable. However, I can access them through proxy servers.
I also spoke to the Reliance Powersurfer Help Desk, and they confirmed that Blogspot blogs have been blocked centrally by the Ministry - and that Powersurfer is not filtering or blocking them at their end.
I would be most grateful if you could look into whether there has been any directive from the Government to block blog sites on blogspot.com and typepad.com.
There is already much being written about this by way of speculation -- see these --
http://www.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/2006/07/what-is-up-with-blogspot-blogger-sites.html
http://www.withinandwithout.com/?p=854
http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/2006/07/15.html#a854
This is really important, as all blogs regardless of content are being blocked on these sites - and we would like to get to the bottom of this. We'd like confirmation of this from you and any other details, before we can take it up with the relevant Ministry, and any other information you may have to help us.
Many thanks,
Dina

I'd urge all those affected by this to write to their ISP providers and to CERT-IN.org - incident@cert-in.org.in for clarifications. Please add responses as you get them into the wiki.

Update - July 17 evening:

Updated list of ISP's banning blogs - from Neha and some more pointers on who to contact for information.

Spectranet
MTNL
Airtel
Sify
Reliance Powersurfer / Infocom
Exatt
7 Star Cable Service
Blogspot.com has been blocked by all.
Typepad.com and Geocities.com have been blocked by the others.

Shivam shares his frustration on calling some of the authorities to get more information.

My guess is its just a matter of time, before all ISP's in India will enforce the block. This is really bad news. Or a terrible mistake somewhere.

Update - July 17 night

BSNL and Iqara added to the list. The plot gets thicker as more bloggers are alerted to the fact that an increasing number of Indian ISP's are involved. We're treading with a little caution before we go whole-hog at the government. There is a possibility that it is all a mistake - where a directive from the government on a few blogs might have been misrepresented by ISP's here - who have blocked entire domains.

Update - July 18 morning
Front page news at Economic Times - Terror Trail - Govt blanks out select blog
Financial Express also reports.
Times of India reports - Bloggers upset at government clampdown

Hindustan Times - This is outrageous - "Officials defended the decision saying, "We would like those people to come forward who access these (the 12) radical websites and please explain to us what are they missing from their lives in the absence of these sites."
Indian Express - Post 7/11, Govt targets ëextremeí websites, bloggers on the blink

More updates on press converage here.

Also, some proxy server aren't working anymore - http://hidemyass.com/, http://pkblogs.com/. Other ways to bypass the ban.

Update - July 18 afternoon.

Proxies are now all working again.

More voices against:

Slashdot - read the discussions there
DNA

Saket informs us that Angela, the owner of wikia.com has moved our wiki from Scratchpad (which is a casual sort of wiki) to the censorship section of Wikia. The new URI is: http://censorship.wikia.com/wiki/Bloggers_Against_Censorship.
Existing pages on the Wiki currently:

List of ISPs that seem to have blocked blogger
Group Members - Short Introduction of Bloggers
Protests By Bloggers - Listing of Blog posts about the ban
Quotes by Bloggers
Bypassing the ban (Workarounds)
Press Coverage of The Ban
Blogs and RTI Act

Update : July 18 - evening

We want answers. The silence isn't helping. I was talking to a journalist who asked me whether the silence from the Government has left us in much confusion. My answer - an unquivocal yes. Questions in my mind ....has the Govt goofed ? Or is it really talking censorship? If it is the latter, as a citizen I feel my constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression is under severe threat. And that disturbs me greatly. There is a lot of anger too as is evident in all the discussions at the Blogger's Collective google group. There is another angle to this too - is it a goof on the govt's part ... or the ISP's - if the Govt banned certain blogs ... and the ISP's banned entire domains ... that's perhaps the ISP's screwup. But now that the issue has taken such serious proportions that we want answers, and soon - what really toook place between the government and ISP's? Why it happened? What does this mean for my rights as a citizen? What assurance that it will not happen again?

Update: July 19

Filing RTI's - here's how. The Right to Information Act was enacted by Parliament in 2005. It mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information. Any ordinary Indian Citizen can file a Right To Information application and the Government is compelled to respond. You can find more information here: http://persmin.nic.in/RTI/WelcomeRTI.htm.

This thread discusses Effective Filing of RTI's at the Blogger's Collective.

Sarbajit Roy, a cyber-law expert, said, "This block is a mindless exercise and shows that our bureaucrats don't understand technology at all." [HT - Govt blames ISPs - Blogger's Protest]

Update July 19 - afternoon

RTI Filed - here's the text.

Update July 19 - evening

Jace spots this - messenger - based VoIP including Yahoo and Skype to be banned too??? Skype - hope you're listening.

Update July 20

Peter links to a scanned version of the ACTUAL document that went out to the ISPs and Rediff tells us that the block on blogs (no, not the other sites) will be lifted in 48 hours plus notes on the kind of websites that have been blocked. [Neha]

Serial Bomb Blasts in Mumbai - terror unfurls this evening

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:09:10 GMT

Serial bomb blasts in first class coaches on local trains on the Western Line in Mumbai. The first was at Khar Station at 6.25 pm, and 5 other blasts are being reported at Jogeshwari, Matunga, Borivli, Bhayander, Matunga. Western Railway services have been suspended.

Telephone lines are jammed - I was lucky to be able use SkypeOut to make calls to family.

We're live blogging this at the MumbaiHelp blog - where you will find regular updates.

Looking for Research Participants

Fri, 26 May 2006 12:38:32 GMT

I'm currently working on a study for a Client around building new applications on Skype, that would be of benefit to users for both business and personal use. To this end, we're organising some focus group discussions with dinner or lunch as appropriate, on June 2nd at 7 pm or June 3rd at 10 am. The discussion will be for about 2.5 hours, with about 6 persons, and will cover three basic areas:

a detailed understanding of your current communication habits and patterns

a demo of the new application, and your responses to it

an exploration into how you might find it beneficial to you

I'm looking for active Skype users in Delhi and Gurgaon who would be able to participate in this exercise ... we want people who have more than 25 contacts on their Skype buddylists. If you fit the bill, and are willing to participate, please do drop in a comment here or get in touch with me at explore(at)vsnl.com or Skype me at dina_mehta.

Many thanks!

Bookmarked !

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 14:16:37 GMT

Thought I'd share some great blog posts and papers I had bookmarked and finally got down to reading:

Rashmi Sinha has some really good essays on Tagging. She has a whole category dedicated to this area, and I found the following posts particularly useful:
- A cognitive analysis of tagging (or how the lower cognitive cost of tagging makes it popular)
- A Social Analysis of Tagging (or how tagging transforms the solitary browsing experience into a social one)
- "Tagging: From Personal to Social" - a powerpoint presentation here.

Some good tips in An Adoption Strategy for Social Software in Enterprise by Suw Charman. She suggests that its key to identify users "who would clearly benefit from the new software, helping them to understand how it could help, and progressing their usage so that they can realise those benefits". I still struggle with tryig to figure out how we can enable the lowering of perceived risks in using such technologies.

Doc Searls introduces the concept of the Intention Economy turning on its head the Attention Economy conversation that focusses more on the 'seller'. He says:

"The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don't need advertising to make them.

The Intention Economy is about markets, not marketing. You don't need marketing to make Intention Markets.

The Intention Economy is built around truly open markets, not a collection of silos. In The Intention Economy, customers don't have to fly from silo to silo, like a bees from flower to flower, collecting deal info (and unavoidable hype) like so much pollen. In The Intention Economy, the buyer notifies the market of the intent to buy, and sellers compete for the buyer's purchase. Simple as that.

The Intention Economy is built around more than transactions. Conversations matter. So do relationships. So do reputation, authority and respect. Those virtues, however, are earned by sellers (as well as buyers) and not just "branded" by sellers on the minds of buyers like the symbols of ranchers burned on the hides of cattle.

The Intention Economy is about buyers finding sellers, not sellers finding (or "capturing") buyers.

In The Intention Economy, a car rental customer should be able to say to the car rental market, "I'll be skiing in Park City from March 20-25. I want to rent a 4-wheel drive SUV. I belong to Avis Wizard, Budget FastBreak and Hertz 1 Club. I don't want to pay up front for gas or get any insurance. What can any of you companies do for me?" ó and have the sellers compete for the buyer's business."

Reading this, and with my limited understanding of the Attention Economy, am wondering .... does one follow the other ... from Attention to Intention ... or Intention to Attention?

Tracking the Future of Telephony ... a great transcript of a very interesting by Norman Lewis director of research for France Telecom at eTel. Really good stuff ... some snips:

"The fundamental point is voice and audio now just becomes another application on the Internet. And that is incredibly exciting, as far as I am concerned, because it is like time, it is now liberated, it is not a stand alone application anymore. It is embedded in everything we doÖTime has became intrinsic in everything. I think that is where voice is going in the future. I think that is truly revolution".

"... we have that possibility of taking that application [voice]Öand liberating it [voice] from that kind of stranglehold that I think telcos have had in the pastÖ and now we can begin to do things we have never done before. ÖIf you just look at the recent period with Ebay-Skype...voice is becoming something of an adjunct to other services and will open up new possibilities...I see this as a huge golden opportunity for immense innovation...What we [the telcos] are doing is re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic. That is essentially what a lot of us are doing in our companies. The innovation landscape has changedÖ"

"It can actually create a sweet spot for all of usÖfor me innovation is rarely about identifying problems our customers have got and trying to solve them. Real innovation is about social change. It is about adopting, it can be incremental, it can also be very disruptive. But if really had to begin with real social motivations, of why people are doing things. What kind of things that they really want to doÖ it is a social consequence that they [ìdigital childrenî] introduce technology into their lives in ways we do not quite fully understandÖ understanding customers [social] behaviour and motivationsÖthat is the coal face as far as I am concernedÖAre we going to develop Internet apps that really embed voice in everything we do, and fundamentally transform that whole experience. I think that is the question."

danah who is a really really smart researcher, ethnographer, media-ecologist, digi-culturist, sociologist, (she's looking for someone to bestow upon her an 'ist') explains Why Youth Heart MySpace.

Geeks in Toyland - a Wired article on how Lego managed to effectively convert their customers to their R&D labs and effectively re-wrote the innovation game! [link via Steve at All this chittah-chattah]

"Some Lego executives worried that the hackers might cannibalize the market for future Mindstorms accessories or confuse potential customers looking for authorized Lego products. After a few months of wait-and-see, Lego concluded that limiting creativity was contrary to its mission of encouraging exploration and ingenuity. Besides, the hackers were providing a valuable service. "We came to understand that this is a great way to make the product more exciting," Nipper says. "It's a totally different business paradigm - although they don't get paid for it, they enhance the experience you can have with the basic Mindstorms set." Rather than send out cease and desist letters, Lego decided to let the modders flourish; it even wrote a "right to hack" into the Mindstorms software license, giving hobbyists explicit permission to let their imaginations run wild.

Soon, dozens of Web sites were hosting third-party programs that helped Mindstorms users build robots that Lego had never dreamed of: soda machines, blackjack dealers, even toilet scrubbers. Hardware mavens designed sensors that were far more sophisticated than the touch and light sensors included in the factory kit. More than 40 Mindstorms guidebooks provided step-by-step strategies for tweaking performance out of the kit's 727 parts.

Lego's decision to tap this culture of innovation was a natural extension of its efforts over the past few years to connect customers to the company."

I tested VoiFi ...was disappointed with the basic sound quality. Uninstalled.

Bookmarked ... and still to read/play with:

- When The Long Tail Wags the Dog and The Long Tail of Popularity

- On quick glance, basic orientation by Paul Beleen in a whitepaper called Advertising 2.0 (pdf), on "what everybody in advertising, marketing and media should know about the technologies that are reshaping their business" Printed, to be read in detail on my flight to Delhi later this week.

- Veer, who has an excellent blog that I recently discovered on the Indian mobile revolution, has launched MyToday, a public RSS aggregator, with Rajesh Jain. Haven't yet played with it ... will soon! I like that it has a mobile phone edition too.

- A collection of articles on Creative Thinking [link via Chuck Frey's Innovation Weblog]

Brand Strategy in a Web 2.0 World

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 08:57:37 GMT

Jennifer Rice at Brand Mantra has an excellent series of posts on Maslow and Branding. She's looked at 8 core consumer needs: Security, Connection, Esteem, Control, Aesthetic, Cognitive, Self-Actualization and Transcendence. She starts the series with this ....

"Remember back in your Psych 101 class when you learned about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? Bet you never expected to see it again in the business world, but...ta da! Here it is. Personally I think a few are missing like freedom and control. But in general, we can easily see how strong brands relate back to the hierarchy. In the next couple posts, I'll walk through the expanded hierarchy (8 needs instead of 5) and discuss their relation to brand strategy."

For the uninitiated, an explanation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I've culled out, from Jennifer's multiple posts, some of the key points and examples that she makes - they are in italics:

on Security:

"This is the "No one ever got fired for buying IBM" syndrome. There are people everywhere who will only purchase products and services from companies that have proven themselves over time. They stuck with SBC when their more adventurous counterparts were fleeing to try one of the new competitive phone companies."

on Connection:

"We're seeing this era of fragmentation come to a close, and the locus of connection is reforming on two very different levels: the physical world where brands like Starbuck's are providing modern tribal gathering spots, and the virtual world where like-minded people can connect based on affinity instead of geography (like Slashdot.) As with trust, all brands can work on facilitating a sense of connection through blogs and forums. But newer brands that are plugged into the grassroots economy are making 'connection' a foundational differentiator for their brands. I'll end up revisiting social technologies and grassroots economy after going though the entire hierarchy, because the virtual locus of connection is actually the point at which 4 different needs intersect."

on Esteem:

"Some newer ways of delivering Esteem include: "New Economy" forums like LegoFactory. Not only is this a place to show off your new Lego designs to other community members, but you also get a chance to be publicly recognized for a great design by the Lego Product Designers themselves. Another example is Slashdot, where you earn karma for smart participation in the forums. You can see in the FAQs that people's karma scores serve as 'reputation badges,' and it appears that some folks were a bit peeved when the karma indicator was changed from a potentially unlimited number to a label ( Terrible, Bad, Neutral, Positive, Good, and Excellent.)"

on Control:

"Control is tightly linked to the notion of freedom; without freedom we have no ability to control our environment. Control and Freedom are two sides of the same coin, a linkage that has surfaced in primary research for several different technology and B2B clients. Features like flexibility and customization relate back to Control, but so do social technologies like blogs, forums, user ratings, etc. The emerging grassroots economy is pushing both Freedom and Control into the hands of employees and customers... forming a vast, distributed human network where each node (individual) can connect, communicate, make choices, learn from each other, grow. In essence this new economy is enabling and empowering us to live and work the way we want, not how someone else tells us we must."

on Aesthetic:

"Aesthetic used to be a nice-to-have, but it's increasingly becoming foundational. Witness the explosive success of Apple and the iPod, or the gotta-have Razr phone. Target is bringing designer style (Isaac, Oldham) to the masses, along with InStyle magazine and "The Look for Less" show. Starbucks combined coffee with an aesthetic environment. Barnes & Noble did the same for books. There are now 250 bathroom faucets from which to choose. Style is important because it's an external representation of our own self-image. What we wear, drive, carry... they're all badges to demonstrate who we are. It makes me wonder if Aesthetic really is the core need; perhaps it' something much more basic, like 'validation of self-existence.' Perhaps style is our subconscious way of defining who we are, or attracting a mate (like peacocks and bird plumage)."

on Cognitive:

"This is about learning and understanding the world around us. While many people still blindly accept the doctrines of traditional authority (church, state, corporations, media, etc.), others are taking control, asking questions and seeking answers. Brands that knock down barriers to knowledge and provide easy access are delivering on this need. These aren't just the obvious brands like Google; they're also brands that practice transparency and educate customers on the how's and why's of their products, services and business practices. Transparency and openness deliver on customers' desire to know. FedEx tracking is a great example (of both Cognitive and Control). And of course, blogs and forums fit into this category as well."

on Self-Actualization:

"Nike pioneered the focus on self-actualization with their famous "Just Do It" tag line. Home Depot followed suit with "You can do it. We can help." Brands that demonstrate a belief in their customers' abilities will win the hearts and minds of those who want to reach higher and accomplish more. But it needs to be more than just talk or a nice tag line. Microsoft's campaign, "Where do you want to go today?" appeals to this need, but I haven't found a lot of supporting evidence for the promise (of course, I haven't looked very hard.). How about creating more interactivity with customers, learning where they want to go, offering online education classes, or perhaps social networking tools that connect mentors with learners?"

on Transcendence:

"This need is about giving back, enriching others or championing a greater cause. The Body Shop was founded on core values like environmental protection; their web site reminds visitors, "Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, that's the only thing that ever does." The Toyota Prius won Edmund's Consumer's Choice for Most Significant Vehicle in 2004. Cause-related brands have strong appeal to small but loyal customer segments."

There is so much potential for social tools and technologies to address so many of these needs - the needs for Esteem, Connection, Self-Actualization, Cognition, Control . Am looking forward to reading Jennifer's thoughts on how they interact. It would require a cultural change in organizations to acknowledge that some of the more powerful human needs, or in marketing terms, customer drivers, lie in the value of actually passing on the control and freedom to customers. Tied into this need are the needs for connection, esteem, cognitiion, self-actualization and ultimately, transcendence.

Web 2.0 companies have shown the way - their products are in perpetual beta, their architecture and marketing is decentralized, they encourage communities of users to self-organize around them. Recently, in an email to Rob, I wrote .... I think one of the most difficult things for people to do is give up control and relinquish 'power' to the many unless they see tangible 'cost-per-click' sort of gains. It's the single largest barrier to accepting and adopting a process that is different to one we have been so conditioned to. Sadly, what few realise the act of giving up that power itself can be so empowering for them - why is Wordpress gaining popularity - why is Flickr so popular - why are del.icio.us and Skype and so many others gaining traction today? They weren't built in a day and pushed onto us as a final product or service - they are being built by and around the community that breathes them. The folks behind them had the guts and vision to say - let's see how our customers 'play' - how they self-organize into networks (developers for instance) - embrace the criticisms with the accolades - and build around what they build. Chaos ..... and creativity. So powerful.

web 2.0

Blog Housekeeping

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 07:49:43 GMT

I finally got around to doing some housekeeping on my blog. Have edited the categories and links - am hoping they will render alright. The nice thing is each of them acts as a separate blog - so readers can subscribe separately to specific categories that interest you!

Here they are - links and RSS feeds :

Weblog Home : (all categories) subscribe

Blogs & Blogging : subscribe

Indian Culture : subscribe

Bridging The Divide - Rural India : subscribe

Business Opportunities : subscribe

Pop!Tech 2005 : subscribe

Creativity : subscribe

Ethnography : subscribe

Qualitative Research Perspectives : subscribe

Social Tools in Disasters : subscribe

Internet & Computing : subscribe

Knowledge Management : subscribe

Voice of the World : subscribe

Random Views : subscribe

Skype & VOIP : subscribe

Social Tools and Social Media : subscribe

Telephony : subscribe

Usability & Design : subscribe

Youth Rap & Insights : subscribe

Locked out of Skype

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 04:57:01 GMT

It has been over 10 hours since I asked for a password reset for Skype, following the password scare - no response yet. Had to boot my laptop this morning so I am now locked out of Skype completely. Can someone from Skype please help with this? I hate moaning and know this is a rant but it is very frustrating. While some Skypers haven't had this problem, there are lots of others facing it.

And to top this, I get an email from the new PR firm for Skype :

".....We are making an announcement tomorrow about the introduction of Skype 2.0, which is even more user friendly and offers video for the first time. The news will cross the wire tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., but Walt Mossbergís story just broke a bit early, so I wanted to be sure you got all the news early as well. Please let me know if you have any questions now or in the future about Skype. I will be happy to help you getaccess as best I can."

I would love to try the 2.0 beta but am locked out. All I can say at this point in time is I hope this isn't what's in store for us with Skype 2.0.

And I notice they've gotten rid of the tagline - "It just works" from their website! Interesting what you notice when a brand you're close to and have an emotional bond with lets you down.

Update : I got a message from Skype support asking for an alternate email id .. and it was reset immediately after. Finally happy. I can try the beta now !

Skype

.

Skype Passwords Scare

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 18:51:39 GMT

I too got a scary email from Skype this evening, and until I read Stuart's post, didn't really look at it. When I read it, I hurried over and changed my password but the promised new password hasn't arrived. Am afraid to log off Skype as I will be stuck. Hope my SkypeIn and SkypeOut accounts and credits don't vanish. This is nuts. Skype is probably overwhelmed by the number of requests and hasn't been able to respond to all ... am hoping.

Skype

SMS to Blog in Disasters

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 18:25:34 GMT

There have been lots of interesting developments around the recent activities around the most recent earthquake in Pakistan and India. I haven't been able to blog much around them, but here's a little communications system set up by the members of the TsunamiHelp, KatrinaHelp and AsiaquakeHelp team :

"An SMS reporter blog has been set up - mail sms2blog@gmail.com or send an SMS [to a Pakistan cellphone number, Imran Hashmi] at +923008568418 and he will forward it to the blog. Your reports will not appear on the blog instantly, because of a blogger glitch, but the blog admins will take turns republishing the blog as often as possible. Your post should appear on the site within an hour, on the average.

The SMS Quake blog is dedicated to first person reports from the affected area, and is open to anyone. Repeat: Anyone. You don't have to be a member of the blog."

This should be automated - its something we're working on. More documentation at the wiki.

We couldn't use Skype this time round, since Skype doesn't have local numbers in India or Pakistan for us to buy a SkypeIn account for people to call into.

Test

Sat, 15 Oct 2005 04:03:57 GMT

Testing ... i think my blog is back :).

Virtual Lights in Dark Skies

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 18:14:39 GMT

My experiences with the Virtual Call Centre we have set up and the thought of a Virtual Phone Bank, makes me wonder whether it is worth considering combining the concept of an automated version of this little grassroots call centre with the PeopleFinder Project. The PeopleFinder project is a centralized repository, where you can search the data from dozens of sites, databases and forums that have been established to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina find their loved ones, and to allow people to report missing people.

Benefits? It would take it to quite another level - from search to dialogue to action even. From an online service to one that could be accessed by millions more, without internet connections. In this way, during disaster situations, it would also be possible to reach out to regions that are poorly connected to the internet.

[picture credit here]

Add to that a functionality that Evelyn Rodriguez [link via Nancy] talked about in her post from a few days ago. Skype to SMS and SMS to Skype messages that go onto a central site.

In an emergency, think: Cheap. Simple. Ubiquitous. Perhaps cellphone SMS messages that go directly to a central wiki that is hosted by an large easy-to-remember-even-if-I-never-imagined-I-would-be-in-a-major-disaster organization whether it is Red Cross or Google?

Here in India, cell phone cos have deals with Yahoo and MSN messengers - where as a user all I do is punch in a 4 digit number and i am logged on, I can send text messages thru the phone without any internet connection. This could be extended into an sms-internet gateway. Send text message not needing internet to phone number ... get reply back not needing internet to that phone number. At the back end of the phone number receiving the text message is a gateway box that dumps the query off to the internet, (perhaps a person perhaps a machine), and formats a response to go out.

Could all such logs or those we are getting with our SkypeIn number be recorded as well and automated to integrate into the PeopleFinder, ShelterFinder, Katrinahousing.net and all the other sites dealing with ? Can the Skype-Tellme link-up work here.

This isn't something I have my arms around completely yet, I just intuitively feel there is potential to grow and effectively scale-up the little whipped up centre we have at present. There are many questions that Phil raised when he was helping me articulate my thoughts and develop this idea - Can the tools we're using successfully scale-up to enable multiple operators to act simultaneously. With a more expanded functionality (like the red cross) do you need the other tools used in call centres - like scripts, call databases, traffic analysis, integration with other systems, etc? Or would keeping it very simple and clean (so people can volunteer more quickly and with less training) be a better approach?

Would we lose the visceral experience of being part of a self organizing team, of solving immediate and tangible problems, of helping people who really need, using your wit and compassion and connectivity.

Also see an earlier post by Stuart on Skype call centres, where he shared this scenario, and a possible how-to :

An entrepreneur is growing rapidly, his call center is outsourced and he needs to bring it in house for better quality. He's going to set up a bank of PC's to handle it. He goes to Walmart and purchases 50 Xandros Linux ready Skype PC's at $200 and adds another $300 for quality screen and a couple of other miscellaneous bits. He loads them all up with Skype and logs everyone of them on to "CorporateCallCenter". He goes to the Skype account page and purchases one SkypeIn Account for one year at a cost of 30 Euros and buys E50 worth of minutes. He's ready to go. His staff can now handle up to 50 concurrent calls in bound or outbound all using the same line and account.

Skype virtual call centre opens web to Katrina survivors

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 08:13:50 GMT

I've been taking turns manning the virtual call centre we have set up using Skype linked to KatrinaHelp, to help cover 24 hours of the day. I am beginning to understand what it feels like to be a call-centre operator :).

What amazes me though, is that I can volunteer my time, sitting in my living room at home in Mumbai India, and be of use to help those seeking information about their loved ones who are missing on that other side of the world. This morning, I was on a shift for a couple of hours, and I received about 8 calls on our Skypein number, and made a few on SkypeOut. It was really rewarding to be able to point the callers to resources and hook them up with those offering help. And they were so grateful someone was listening to them, and that they did not have to figure out how to navigate pages on websites and wikis.

Imagine how it would be to have a virtual Skype phone bank. One that is not just virtual, but ad hoc. Just-in-time emergent support. Always on when we have a bank of volunteers from all over the world, and at all hours. Our way of reaching out and helping those in distress.

Also posted at SkypeJournal - see the comments there for further discussion.

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 12:21:26 GMT

Google finds its Voice

Google is talking. I tried Google Talk this morning and sound quality was really very good. Almost better than Skype in that there was less amplification of ambient sound. Crystal clear. Many thoughts swirling in my mind right now - so here is my ramble.

I wonder whether it uses as much bandwidth as Skype does. Must try it with a video application - is a good user test. More questions .. is voice and chat encrypted in Google Talk? They have just opened Gmail out to the public - so expect many more users. Will it work from mobile devices - I can browse Google and get gmail today on the mobile phone - will I be able to use GoogleTalk to chat too? How viral will it get when integrated with their browser, Google Desktop, Orkut, etc? Will this kill Skype as it is a stand-alone application whereas Google has become a way of life for internet users with its suite? Google then move from content to conversation? How open will their API be, will they encourage and reward independent developers or leave them frustrated?

Really interesting to see how it all emerges.

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 12:10:12 GMT

Skype talks to India

The recently launched DNA, a national English-language newspaper, has bagged the first interview with Niklas Zennstrom in Indian media.

I couldn't find the article online so here's a scanned image of the interview.

No surprises really, as he talks about how Skype has taken off, the thinking behind creating Skype and the way forward for Skype. Partnerships with handset manufacturers, and wifi enabled devices, neww payment options, and additional premium offerings such as video-conferencing and workgroups focussed offerings.

A non-committal 'perhaps' to the question of whether India could aid in product development going forward, and the statement that India ranks 36 in Skype's top ranking countries of use, with more than 279,000 users. Ending the interview with this thought :

"As one of the world's emerging leaders in IT and associated services, India certainly has a major part to play in the future development of Skype."

279,000 is a small number really, I think there is tremendous potential to expand the base in India. Perhaps a starting point would be to scope the opportunity with different segments of potential Skypers in India - the Indian with family abroad, the villager with low communication access otherwise, the internet kiosk user, the small and medium businessman.

Then there is the business model ... free vs paid services ñ should Skype look at 100mn subscribers to free service or 10mn who pay? What are the critical success factors, brand strategy, media streams etc both short term and longer term ?

And to scope different areas of operation and affiliates - appropriate partners, hotspots, cybercafes where often there is a lot of VOIP usage, social networking sites (dating and match-making sites for instance are huge in India ñ not sure they currently use VOIP or presence), the whole BPO industry, portals and programmers who tend to use more of these technologies (and are a huge number).

These scenarios will play out as more and more of India gets better internet connection. I live in Bombay and yes, I do have a decent connection at home, and I use Skype, SkypeIn and SkypeOut extensively with clients and friends/family. And it works well. But I also travel a lot on work and have erratic connections, sometimes a dial-up, sometimes using a Reliance CDMA phone as a modem which gives me speeds similar to ''claimed'' dial-up speeds (56 kbps), and I have managed to speak to people on Skype and make calls to cell phones in the US on that connection as well. Not always perfect of course, but enough to communicate quite fluidly.

Moreover, cell phones are really changing the way we communicate and connect, and not just in their use as mobile phones. Price of GPRS and CDMA connections are coming down day by day, and when used as modems, they work pretty well. Since I got my Reliance phone, I see no need to struggle with really lazy dial-up connections. And it costs me about 12 USD a month with a bar on 1 GB downloads, which is more than sufficient for using it as my modem.

There are enough indicators that broadband connections too are going to increase, and pretty soon. If not through cables, it will be wireless even in remote areas. I agree that it is one of the large factors that will determine the success of Skype in countries like India. It is coming and my hope is that Skype must get their act going for India, as the market potential is huge.

Lets see how all of this plays out ... now with Google Talk-ing, it should all get more interesting. Hmmmmm.

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 03:58:40 GMT

Skype Plugins

Stuart has his selection of five best Skype Software Add-on Picks for Windows users.

"Here is my pick of five SkypeAPI enabled products that can really change how Skype works for you. Better call answering, new call forwarding and video solutions. Plus enhanced collaborative desktop sharing and a way to silence your iTunes. I apologize in advance to Mac users. This really is a Windows list. ............" [From Skype Journal (feed. See also links to this feed and more from this feed]

Stuart's Five Software Winners (read his post in full for his reasons for selection):

1. Pamela-Systems Pro
2. Video4IM

3. Jyve Web Tools

4. Jybe Collaboration Tool
5. MiTunes

I've tried Jyve and I like where it's going - I've been using the presence server at my blog for a while now - and am yet to get the code right for this Radio blog with the new improved version, although it works so well on other blogs and wikis where I have presence indicators. Video4IM works fairly well - its really quick and you can actually have real-time lip-synch, but the image breaks up often - maybe it is my bandwidth? I just installed MiTunes - sounds like a useful one to have.

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 05:06:46 GMT

Skype Survey

Cross-posted at SkypeJournal :

Skype Skimping on Asking the Right Questions?

Skype has an online survey up. It's all about habits and practices - but there seems to have been little thinking on and stretch in terms of options, scales, wants and wishlists. It's not well designed, poorly structured, with many gaps in areas covered, and no real behavioural information being collected. A wasted opportunity!

Just because online surveys are simple doesn't mean they shouldn't be well thought out. It's also more dangerous to have information that is incomplete or poorly collected than to have no information at all. Unfortunately many organisations fall into this trap. There is down and dirty research -- this is not it.

Breaking down the survey to understand the gaps further, there are problems in several areas :

1. Areas of Coverage :

* No demographic profiling - age, gender, income, etc - to contextualise responses

* Inadequate coverage of Skype's offerings - what about conference calling, chat and multi-chat, Skype on PDA's, Skype API, forums - areas of satisfaction and problems with them? For instance, how many have made a conference call with SkypeOut - one problem could be tackling DTMF tones

* No behavioural information of depth and value like buddy lists, minutes and hours spent on each feature, how many failed calls, what percentage is acceptable, what percentage local vs international calls, whether Skype is set to a call-centric or chat-centric mode, etc

* No developer products included : video chat, presence servers, outlook import, other plugins. These form a vital part of the total offering from a customer's point of view, and make the Skype experience richer - it would have been interesting to study awareness, usage and motivations for them.

* No feature comparisons with other products competing in the same space from a user's perspective - IM, other VOIP offerings, even landlines and cell phones - resulting in answers in a vacuum without benchmarks and best-in-class standards that always make responses so much more reliable and meaningful, particularly when satisfaction is involved. For instance, would you say your Skype billing experience is better than or worse than your current cellular provider? Landline carrier? Amazon? Other? NA? What's your best billing experience online?

* Very little space offered for opportunities to improve

* Even less on what Skype really means to users today and how is it changing the way they communicate, impact on their communication behaviour and habits.

* Branding and positioning issues - how is Skype positioned in the customer's mind? What associations, what image, what relationship, strength of stickiness and loyalty? I know Skype is beginning to think of brand - and that's a great step. I also hope that they remember the brand is not just what the company communicates, but as it rests in user's minds and hearts and leaves it imprints. I'd have loved to see some brand-related questions here.

2. Questionnaire design and structure:

* Options and choices (dropdown boxes) provided seem inadequate in most areas. The connection speed options are not customer friendly. Reasons for using don't include - for business, for travel, for connecting with family abroad etc. Another instance:

Why did you start using Skype Voicemail? (check all that apply)
Thought it was cool

Wanted to save money

Wanted to call people abroad

Other

These options make little sense in the context of voicemail - none of the potential reasons for using Voicemail are listed in the options. It seems like these questions have been dumped blindly from the earlier SkypeOut section.

* Areas for improvement in all sections are left as an open-ended space; some amount of stimulus for thought might have been provided for generating more meaningful suggestions. For instance, for Voicemail, there are so many possiblities - from saving copies to sending group messages or not having to listen to your message for the 5th time when sending.

* Scale used for satisfaction - the 3-point scale : very satisfied-satisfied-not satisfied again doesn't really offer up much - first, there aren't enough gradations to really determine satisfaction to make it a good customer service scale and second, satisfaction must always be measured against perceived benchmarks, without which it can be meaningless

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 06:57:22 GMT

SkypeMe Eve

Also posted at SkypeJournal.

"I don't know what is wrong with people... i put my status skype me, and in my profile i say: I am on air on the radio.. if u wanna listen ok.. i can't answer calls! They made my PC freeze! I swear! People calling..., asking if i liked sex, even after i told them i was on air on my radio... i swear... people sending weird invitations! In my profile is nothing that gives the idea of me having cyber sex... Please guys... try to be more respectful to girls! A female is not only for sex, try to like her for her mind, thoughts and ideas... not her "being female". I AM MAD...."

This comment, among many others, from one angry lady in the Skype Forums spurred me to experiment with and explore this area some more. I switched on my profile to SkypeMe, and waited. In the short span of 10 minutes, I got 4 requests for authorisation, had 4 calls, and 3 chats. With guys mainly from Africa and Asia. All getting personal real quick, some wanting me to move over to MSN, asking for photos and webcams, pretty much all after my body. In fact, I ended up interviewing one caller and he told me he was at the office, and usually spent half an hour from 9.30- 10 am looking for female company. He had made many women friends in China and Vietnam. Most of the calls however terminated when I told them I was merely interested in researching this area!

It felt a bit like hanging out in a chatroom - except that I didn't get pinged by bots. As a medium too, I felt less in control, as I couldnot lurk or watch others.

In contrast, Stuart who was experimenting with me, got 1 authorisation request from a male conference call with doctors in England, within the time.

Makes me wonder whether the SkypeMe button attached to a 'female' profile somehow suggests a new form of phone sex. The discussion at the forum indicates this.

I also did a search for females with SkypeMe turned on, and it was interesting to see just 4 profiles with this. Female India Skypeme showed up no women at all. Still, I got flooded with calls and messages. I don't really know whether its a slow directory or is the "Hit on me" stigma preventing women from switching it on?

How do I currently cope being a woman on Skype? I'm usually always in an 'away' mode or 'not available'. This is done with a purpose - to keep away intrusions. Friends and colleagues are aware of it and call me anyway. I have allowed calls only from my contact list, but I didn't want to restrict the chats, so that's open. I have tried to put off the 'red-hot-huge' types by a note in my profile that reads : "I'd appreciate it if you sent me a brief message before asking for an authorization, tell me a little bit about you, and your interest in talking to me." Still, on an average day, I get at least 6 requests for authorisation, and several chat messages. I ignore all that do not indicate an interest in some specific area of my work or blog. If they persist more than once, I block them. I try to gauge from the Skype name and profile more about the person trying to contact me - if the person has a blog I tend to start a conversation but RedHotHuge is a definite no-no.

So what does all of this mean for women on Skype? Does it limit our freedom to connect? Are we restricting people who can contact us and sometimes filtering out people who we may find interesting? Does that reduce our reach and potential in communication? How do other women feel - is it a problem, or just a nuisance? Does it prevent them from sharing video capabilities too?

Do men also get hit-on when they are on SkypeMe?

Would love to hear your views on this.

I would like to keep the Skypeme button on - as a person, I am greedy for conversations with people all over the world. It could potentially be such a neat conversation-research-marketing-sales tool, whatever your interest may be. Imagine if a car salesman puts up a small note - best bargains for Toyota Corolla in India against the SkypeMe button, you enter the discussion if you are interested and it's potentially much more rewarding than a cold advertisement. Or someone is initiating a discussion on Julia Cameron's the Artist's Way and sets up a chat topic where you could just click and join and share how you are using the book to unleash your creative juices. Or I am researching MTV promos on air in India or how Skype is changing the way we communicate - and I add this shows up in my SkypeMe profile, with a click to join the discussion. 24/7 global group discussions for free :).

However, for now, its off, as the intrusions are far greater than meaningful conversations. Some issues I hope Skype will address that might help me keep this channel open :

- can we have layered profiling, where I could display different levels of profile to different people - for instance, I am willing to share my photo and contact details with my buddylist, whereas for callers outside of my contact list, I'd rather not.

- is there any way of filtering out and blocking keywords in the text function and the authorisation requests?

Please drop in your suggestions at Skypejournal or here.

Thu, 23 Jun 2005 01:10:36 GMT

Blogs as Market Research Tools 4 - Researcher Fly on the Wall

Blogs Growing Into The Ultimate Focus Group (AdWeek.com)

In promoting a new calling plan this spring, U.S. Cellular wanted to reach college-age consumers and speak to them on their own terms. While normally that might mean convening focus groups, commissioning surveys and poring over market-research reports, the Chicago company's youth-focused ad agency, G Whiz, decided instead to listen to what their potential customers were saying on their blogs.

Through Umbria Communications, a market-research firm in Boulder, Colo., G Whiz was able to eavesdrop on blog conversations. Umbria used linguistic analysis to ferret out U.S. Cellular's target group and collect cell-related blog postings. "We were more of a fly on the wall," said Bethany Harris, svp and director of client services at G Whiz in New York, a WPP Group shop.

The feedback showed Harris just how attached young adults are to their phones. They complained about unwanted calls that drag on and on, eating into their minutes and forcing them to turn off their phones toward the end of their billing cycles, leaving them feeling isolated from their friends. G Whiz quickly crafted four TV spots that played off those themes. In one, a man in his early 20s has to listen to one of his buddies who calls from a concert and holds the phone up for him to hear the music. On-screen copy reads: "With U.S. Cellular, you get Unlimited Call Me minutes. So even when people waste your time, they don't waste your money."

"We find Web logs are a very rich source [of market intelligence], because people don't just go to talk about a recent movie, they go to talk about their lives," said Howard Kaushansky, CEO of Umbria, which was founded in March 2004 and counts Sprint and Electronic Arts among its clients. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]

Reminds me of a comment Jim McGee made after we met in Boston last year :

In the marketing research context, blogs are a disruptive technology. Instead of having to generate data by way of surveys or focus groups with whatever artifacts the process introduces, blogs provide direct visibility into customers. Instead of having to connect potentially artificial samples back to the actual market, now you have to filter real market behavior, interpret it, and make sense of it.

Some other tools I'm exploring for market research :

News aggregators
Tags like with Flick'r and Del.icio.us
Skype, now vskype too ! and IM
Podcasting, Skypecasting

Sun, 12 Jun 2005 07:18:14 GMT

Stuart on Presence at Reboot 7

Stuart is on talking about Presence. If you haven't met him you will know he's just the guy to talk about it - he sure has a sense of presence at 6'5" and this deep voice.

He's being introduced by Thomas as the Skype blogger - and Thomas asked him to tell us how he got there. Stuart tells us about his starting off with blogging at his first blog Unbound Spiral and then becoming excited about Skype and focussing on it and then setting up the Skype Journal.

Notes from his presentation :

Whats your Presence strategy? It can't be isolated from your Skype strategy. He's asking us how many of us use Skype - most hands are raised. How many have more than 50 people on their buddylist? Not very many.

Makes an important point - talks about the Skype community - if Skype breaks our trust, they lose.

Lots of stories about how Skype is changing the way we have global conversations.

Personal Presence Servers - on websites, in directories, public and private.When does it make sense to share ? How much to share?

He's now taking us through new applications based on the Skype API. The deeper questions he is asking - who owns your presence information? Who takes control of it? We want to own it. We want to control it. Skype must give us this option. Better still, let the developers and users determine this and leverage it.

Presence is a spiral - 3 stages of Online Presence - Presence Accessibility, Presence Experience, Presence Agents.

Lessons - developers must crawl under the Skype API - we need a more open space dialogue. Keep the API open - enable negotiation and facilitation and empowerment. Everyone benefits. How does presence fit into your mobile life - it will accelerate communications and networking.

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 09:38:20 GMT

Reboot 7 opening session day 2 - Digi rights and VOIP

Just attended Cory Doctorow's keynote address - Europe's Coming Broadcast Flag and Christian Lindholm - What is mobile life really about ñ Towards the seamless interplay between Hardware, Applications and Services. Cory made an appeal :

"Donít let Hollywoodís iron heel come down on your life, your technology, your privacy, your artists and your social institutionsófight back and win the Broadcast Flag fight in Europe, too!"

Good lesson for Asia too.

The Nokia presentation was disappointing - it was about what you can do with a Nokia phone today - cam phones and lifeblog - don't we all know that already? It didnot touch upon bigger issues of how manufacturers of cell phones are gearing up for VOIP applications, what they are doing to embrace the open web. He spent a lot of time on the cam phone aspects but didn't talk us through how mobile technology is about communications or networking or better quality sound or video.

Malthe Sigurdsson is on now and talking about The Skype Brand - he is sharing the Skype philosophy of keeping it simple and opening up through the forums and developer community - it works ! The room is crowded with people squatting on the floor - just shows the interest in Skype here. More on his talk here.

Questions:

How do you make money and how do you decide how much money you make ? Answer - VC, building userbase - plenty of money to go around, paid-for services where potential for revenues, tie-ups with hardware manufacturers, etc

Rumour - Yahoo buying Skype ? - Answer - there's so much more for Skype to do than being bought over by someone.

Can we buy stock? Answer - yeah we have stickers here :):)

Payment issues - Answer - being worked on - perhaps develop hubs.

It was lovely sharing a table with Jaanus who runs the Skype blog at the London Geek Dinner last week - we talked about India and I shared my Skype wonder with him - I also gave him my Skype wishlist - Skype on cell phones, Skype with video. He's listening :)

India , Digital Communities, Prix Ars Electronica & the Digital Divide

Sun, 29 May 2005 14:17:51 GMT

Digital Communities category at the PrixArts - Akshaya wins.

Tsunamihelp blog gets an honorary mention. [via Chetan Kunte, via Joi Ito].

I'd blogged about Akshaya in November 2004. Great to see plans for VOIP and conferencing, access is one part of it, communications is so integral to really bridging the digital divide. From their website :

"Wiring up Malappuram, 3,550 Sq.KMs spreading from East to West section of Kerala is a huge challenge. Connectivity Requirements

- Should support data and voice
- Should support Internet browsing
- Voice over IP,Multimedia, Video conferencing (at a later stage)
- E-learning

Minimum Internet bandwidth requirement:

Maximum Information rate (MIR) : 64kbps & Committed Information Rate (CIR) : 16kbps.
Should be possible for any of the Akshaya centers to enhance the bandwidth and/or download limit on request."

Also read Villages may get Net, telephony on cable in the Business Standard yesterday, where the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is planning a convergence of voice data services. It is expected to send a proposal to the government for allowing cable operators in rural areas to offer basic telephony and Internet services.

Fri, 06 May 2005 06:27:33 GMT

Voice Comments at Blogs

Now wouldn't this be cool !!! How about it, Radio Userland?

Skype to Blog Calls - SkypeAudioBlogging.

"What I hope to share today is my initial experience with Skype to Blog Calling. What's a Skype to blog call? Well don't you want your blog to capture voice comments from readers? I certainly do. What's more Skype has evolved to the point where it is more than just possible. Short recordings. Based on tests today and the speed with which the blogosphere can adapt solutions mean:

Every blog user could have a "Voice" comments option. You simply Skype the blog. In fact what happens is each post has a unique call to tag which is intercepted by a small program interacting with the SkypeAPI, which diverts the call to Pamela which also provides text messages to the Skyper - You finish leaving your voice comment and it is being uploaded and the final url link to the voice comment texted to you when completed.
Voice Commenting Status would be provided by a Presence Server which would also present online status updates for the post author. As long as the author has Skype online then voice comments are activated. Similarly commenters would have an option to share their status with the site they are commenting on. Eg a recent comments by those currently online.
Voice Activated Blog Channels could be set up. SkypeMe.SkypeJournal.com as a voice blog consisting of voice messages tagged by topic. It could be self regulating just like Hot or Not or similar sites. You record your elevator pitch and tag it with key words. When others listen they can also tag it. Thus you have a repository and a history search function and directly feed into RSS.
Presence for Vocalizers. If you leave lots of comments and want feedback at the appropriate times why not leave / share your presence with others listening to your comments. A response button would also be possible that would say enable a text message but no intrusive calls. This is no different than leaving an e-mail link.

As a side benefit, voice comments could be clipped into newsy podcasts, highly commented on posts with unique insights could be very interesting. Personal podcasts of the RSS Voice Comments feeds are possible"

Read the whole post - its worth thinking about.

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 11:49:55 GMT

Skype in Disaster Relief

Use your Skype profile for the next Tsunami.

After the 2004 Tsunami, people rushed to help. Skypers should be a part of this the next time. Four steps:

Put Skype callto: links on the disaster web site, both in the directory of contacts and with each post/update. As important as phone numbers, especially when bridging long distances. This lets volunteers forage for the right contacts. The html is skypename
Pick a "tag" for your disaster. TSUNAMI. MADRID311. TOMDELAY2006. Something simple and specific.
Add the tag to your Skype profile's About field. For example, TSUNAMI-HELP-NEEDED let's others search for it. Also write what you need in your profile.
Offer to help the same way. TSUNAMI-HELP-OFFERED. If you have something specific, describe it there too.

Now search the network for your new partners.

This leverages three great things:

Motivation and tools produce solutions. Immediately after the 2004 Tsunami, volunteers stepped in and responded without central direction. The Tsunami blog and wiki helped teams of strangers form online. Then they used listservs and SMS to work. If you want emergent organization in a disaster, give volunteers tools to co. Connect, collaborate, communicate, coordinate.
The Skype profile cloud is a rich but imperfect medium. Use the Skype cloud to help people find each other and start talking. This slashes the effort of connection (a barrier to group formation) and shortens the click-path between people. This model depends, like Skype itself, on cheap/free communication from the edge of a large network.
People tag when they care. This is an example of folksonomy reaching into the Skype network to bring people together for action, perhaps to save lives.

[Skype Journal]

Nice Phil ! Extend this to NGO's doing work in other areas as well ...

And in countries like India and I know many others in South East Asia .. bring Skype to a mobile phone and you've got a real winner!