Comments on: How Skype Can Quickly and Easily Become a Social Network (and Clean Facebook's Clock) http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:38:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Skype CEO Outlines Platform Ambitions, Hiring Plans http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229927 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:55:23 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229927 [...] Silverman declined to offer any specific dates (and details) on when Skype will make launch a platform for others to leverage. One thing is for sure, Skype can pose a serious challenge to some of the upstarts such as Ribbit, TringMe and Twilio who are all trying to make it easy for application developers to embed voice-related functionality into their offerings. Skype’s ubiquity – over 500 million subscribers – makes it a fearsome agent of change in the Internet-based communications arena. (Related Post: How Skype can quickly and easily become a social network (and clean Facebook’s clock.)) [...]

]]> By: …My heart’s in Accra » What if they stop clicking? http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229926 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:08:29 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229926 [...] or Metafilter as examples), or communities that might thrive via an alternative revenue stream (see Brian McConnell’s suggestion for how Skype could run a highly profitable Facebook or Twitter and generate more call traffic in [...]

]]> By: babyis60 http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229925 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:09:25 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229925 This ‘running skype client in a browser’ thing is interesting. We do it (see http://blip.tv/file/2762980 for an example) and it works nicely in certain circumstances. It fails however in others.

For it to work (socially) you need both ends on-line at the same time.

Social web pages are not ‘always on’, they are ‘casual visit’ sites. Even the most Facebook obsessed are only on for, say 2 out of 24 hours – so they would only be reachable 10% of the time. Forgive my maths, but I think that means the chances of 2 people being reachable at the same time is 1% .

There are ways out of this problem:
1) the callee is _always_ available – classic skype users, or company PBX’s connected via Skype for Asterisk/SIP
2) leveraging presence (eg the way facebook chat works) by limiting who you can talk to
3) having an always-on fall-back for the called party (e.g. cell-phone) – If your callee isn’t on-line then skype calls their cell instead (and someone pays !)

Probably the most exciting option is what we have been working on with the guys from voice.ibook.com, where you remove the need for people to be there at the same time – kinda ‘asynchronous telephony’ – which is hinted at in the demo above, but we are working to develop further.
(Here’s a taster…. http://screencast.com/t/gC9s1J7LN%20 )

]]> By: Top Posts « WordPress.com http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229924 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:12:01 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229924 [...] How Skype Can Quickly and Easily Become a Social Network (and Clean Facebook’s Clock) As a longtime Skype user who never felt that the service fit with eBay, I was thrilled to hear that it’s being [...] [...]

]]> By: Should a Social Skype add Skeets? How does Skype compete with Twitter? A Rant! | stuart henshall http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229923 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:37:09 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229923 [...] love to see Skype follow Brian McConnell’s advice on @gigaom and add an open status updating mechanism.  See my “Skype Will Never Beat [...]

]]> By: SmartBlog On Social Media » Today’s bonus tracks: Why social media is still a hard sell http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229922 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:17:54 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229922 [...] Making Skype social [...]

]]> By: Brian McConnell http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229921 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:07:52 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229921 @TJ I agree. The key idea in a system like this is that the clients would exchange XML files that can represent many types of information, some which might be authored within the Skype client (a status update for example), some of which might be coming from other apps, like Picassa for example. With a very simple interface for passing XML blobs in and out of Skype, you could make this a very open system where the Skype client only understands a small set of what its passing around to its peers. Skype’s role, more than anything, is to figure out who to share information with and to exchange files, something it already does very well.

I generally agree that competing for the sake of competing is not usually productive. Were they to do something like this, it would be something new, especially if there is a conduit for third party developers to use.

]]> By: chris morrish http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229920 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:27:33 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229920 If skype integrated with Facebook connect (like this website) it would be even easier than decentralizing the cloud. Think about it, skype app in facebook for those off computer moments when you don’t want to install a new instance of a client, and facebook directory integration into the skype client for populating and managing a list of all your friends.
Having Skype host a social network would be like asking the phone company to run digg, this would never work. But keeping each service working at what they do best will improve the environment instead of creating conflict.

]]> By: Bobbe Lee http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229919 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:51:10 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229919 OK that actually makes pretty good sense to me dude!

RT
http://www.privacy-stuff.be.tc

]]> By: TJ Cook http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229918 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:49:33 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229918 I love Skype, it’s my team’s “office.” But I empathize with the detractors to this article who don’t want Skype to merely compete with Facebook. That’s not the way to success; the way to success is to create a new market, and I think the key in this respect comes in the opening of Skype’s API. Let developers take Skype to the next level, not Skype itself.

Don’t worry about exposing the secret sauce–keep that secret, but let me do more with you in my applications and grand ideas and business models.

]]> By: swag http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229917 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:22:06 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229917 Sigh. One-dimensional industry thinking: “The only way to make a good product sell is to fashion it as a social network.”

I don’t buy it. This is lazy thought.

]]> By: Pothi http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229916 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:12:46 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229916 This is a terrific thought. Skype must be excited (and Facebook must be equally worried as well).

]]> By: Tuesday links: hedge fund funding Abnormal Returns http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229915 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:24:49 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229915 [...] Should Skype take on Facebook and become a social network?  (GigaOm) [...]

]]> By: Senderok Allen http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229914 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:47:40 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229914 We’ve been approaching social networks telling them how they can clean Facebook’s clock simply by moving onto the Email platform by putting photo profiles into the Email header pane and letting, for instance, the Outlook inbox transform itself temporarily into a browser within the program itself. Our technology can put any VOIP network or social network into the Email header panes of Outlook, YahooMail, Gmail and Live. xobni is also doing this using a frame that overlays the Outlook interface and they are using a middle-man business model where they charge $30 per corporate user per year (our business model is to let our OEM customers bill the corporate users). Both SenderOK and xobni are paving the way for social network activity to occur primarily within the Email client and not on the web.

Having said that, Facebook is only #1 because its competitors have been sleeping. I’ve been trying to find even one person at that company they overtook who will even answer their own phone to listen to suggestions on how they can stage a comeback. Maybe they’re too busy hob-nobbing with movie stars. :-)

I could write a book about the crazy mentality of some social network operators that begins and ends with the idea that they will always be reached only by people visiting their URL on the Web…and that voice communication is somehow out-moded (one only needs to look at the recent Cornell Email all-reply blunder to understand that lots of communication should *only* be verbal).

Even when using socnet sites on the web itself, it blows my mind that I can’t make automatic VOIP calls right there and then.

]]> By: toputop http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229913 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:54:26 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229913 Good post…Skype will rock the future.

]]> By: Funtomas http://gigaom.com/2009/11/09/how-skype-can-quickly-and-easily-become-a-social-network-and-clean-facebooks-clock/#comment-229912 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:11:44 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=78954#comment-229912 Because Skype aspire to become corporate communication channel no. 1. I see a better partner in Cisco.

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