P2P or Skype P2P

Yesterday I was like everyone thinking initially that the Skype issue was going to be an indictment for P2P overall. It isn't. Its how Skype has chosen to implement their own version of P2P which makes Skype so useful, and yet, now so dead. I realized this morning after some reflection that this really an indictment of Skype. And that hurts because I've become a fan of Skype and more importantly, someone who relied on it, but also someone who made sure I wasn't dependent on it for my business.

When the story first broke I called friends like Om Malik and suggested that he talk with Aron Rosenberg, CTO of SightSpeed to get a real perspective on P2P and how Skype is doing their flavor of it. The reason was simple. Rosenberg has built a platform using P2P the way P2P is supposed to be used. He's also well versed in SIP and SIP P2P is not a new subject as its been on the conference agendas at VON and TMC events for a while. Rosenberg knows what Skype is doing from the technical level, and in turn how it impacts the users experience.

That's why Aron's comments on Peter Csathy's blog are so important, and why he needs to be referenced as a source and expert. Rosenberg is not here championing SightSpeed. He's championing the SIP P2P concept that is essential for the growth and success of 2.0 real time communications in an IP world.

When I sugested Rosenberg as a source to Om, and later to Brad Stone of the New York Times, I just as easily could have suggested Erik Lagerway of Gaboogie or a few others who have the mastery and have demonstrated what P2P in voice and video is all about. They know the difference and are practicing it every day. To me Skype is a real time communications platform that millions rely upon, but because it is using its own "witches brew" approach it has warts that are now exposed. As a Real Time Communications applications Skype has to be a more fault tolerant, not a less than fault tolerant brew of P2P for things to work. Unfortunately, we just saw the result of Skype's own proprietary concoction manifested into poisonous KoolAid.

Maybe its time for the world to see the Skype algorithm that's locked away in a safety deposit box in Luxembourg so some of the top technology minds can help remedy the Skype problem, instead of the problem festering now for day two!

Comments

[Aswath]

I thought SIP P2P also uses Supernode like concept. By the way does Sightspeed indeed uses SIP P2P or plain old SIP, with centralized proxies. The post you reference seems to suggest the latter.