VoIPWatch

Jeff Calls Us The Skype Paparazzi

If Skype Paparazzi is who we are, I'm honored to be lumped in with two of the best pure journalists I know. Mark Evans, and Om Malik.

These two are real reporters. They report and talk to sources everyday. I just call it as I see it, rely on instinct, 32 years of work experience and some lessons learned from my mentors now sadly not with us any longer.

Our coverage of Skype largely has been brought on by the eBay influence. Skype since it's inception had been very blogger and early adoptive media friendly. As a private company they could do a lot without having the SEC look over the shoulder. Now as part of eBay, a company that has never been what I would call media savvy, just big news driven, has begun to change the way things are done.

That's started with PR. They've hired a firm with some credentials of past successes, but in the PR world you're only as good as last clip, story or blog post. The total void of rapport with the bloggers, a leadership team now split between Silicon Valley, Tallin, Estonia and London means 8 and 10 hours of difference.

Hears another issue, just around the time eBay bought Skype, the startup named a very savvy brand building executive in Saul Klein Chief Marketing Officer. Recently I read he's VP of Marketing.

Something's not adding up in SkypeVille.

Clickity Clack has some more thoughts as does Mike at Utopiaoverip.

Evans on Om On Andy On Skype (And Iotum too!)

Mark Evans, without a doubt the Great White North's top telecom journalist comments today on Om's comments about my comments regarding Skype's current employee defections and departures.

He also found time to comment on client iotum too seeing their core value proposition to carriers so clearly!

P.S.Note to Om. I'm not/wasn't on vacation. I actually had some client related meetings...Though the Austrian wine and food, and the French food wasn't a bad way to have to work.

Skype Causing Spam?

If you've been seeing all the spam in your inbox and you use Skype there's a good chance this Trojan horse virus has infected someone you know.

Google And Time Warner Telecom?

Time Warner Telecom, which was spun out a few years back from TimeWarner/AOL may be in cahoots with Google.

TWT does have a very good network. They want only enterprise customers and the have the build out to be able to supply Google with some aspects of what they want, likely filling in gaps beyond the dark fiber Google has of their own.

Relaxing view

Tue 22.11.2005 10:10 Image084

Guess Who I had Dinner With In Vienna?

Mr. enum
Thu 24.11.2005 20:32 Image098

Slashdot Asks If Calea Will Wreck Skype

One of the supposed strengths of Skype and other P2P platforms is their encryption, making it harder for prying ears to listen in.

Slashdot begs the question today, via a News.com account, if pending efforts by the FBI under CALEA will basically do away with the idea of software like that, and more importantly what the next step needs to be.

My view is those who have nothing to fear shouldn't care. I mean, if you're not doing anything wrong, what's the rub if the government has the ability to listen in on the bad guys? While I support the NRA's view on the right to bare arms here in the USA, I don't object to the ATF (or whatever they are called now) being able to restrict what type of guns people can own. I mean, does one really need an AK-47 or an Uzi to hunt with? Only if the kind of hunting is the human kind.....The same applies to encryption in my book.

Trouble in Paradise?

Within one hour today, during conversations with three different people, in different parts of the world I heard the following Skype stories:

1. That the programmers in Estonia saw nothing to very little in the way of stock options.

2. That two days before the sale to eBay employees were told by Nicklas that the he would never sell the company.

3. That ebay is addling layers of management to Skype, with three new VPs..one for commerce, another for API and a third that I don't recall precisely.

4. That there are a lot of people leaving Skype due to the merger. Reportedly there have been some defections in Business Development and PR, but some of those rumors may relate to PR whiz Kelly Larabee being off on maternity leave for now.

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5.Pooj Preena, the stud biz dev honcho out of San Francisco has left Skype. Considering many of the deals announced of late had his involvement (i.e. Linksys for one as an example..) I'd say things are starting to turn the other way for the radicals at Skype.

How much of the rest is true is unclear, but I'm working on the facts...

Cable Labs Seeking Peering Knowledge

In what has to be a boon to Level3, AT&T and all the SIP based providers, CableLabs has issued a request for information about VoIP peering.

This is along lead matter but clearly signals the market that the cable guys are making some serious moves into VoIP and looking to get further from the traditional telcos.

Skype In Three Way Deal With Radio Shack and Motorola

This is one of the best retail deals Skype could have ever made. Radio Shack sales people are passionate about everything they sell. They know their inventory and are uber geeks in a nice, consumer friendly way.

Now if they could figure a way to make every Radio Shack a Boingo hotspot they would really have it made...