For a few years now even tech-savvy middle-weights have steered clear of something called ‘Voice over IP’ and the scary implications of talking computers, empowered and now demanding networks of constant chat! We all had the nightmares of server farms, springing to life and oddly clod and over-wired pc-soldiers to take over the universe! Or maybe that was just me!
Regardless of whether you’ve shared in my strange dreams, we can rest easy! Some clever people ‘over there’ (read: Luxembourg via London & Tallinn) have branded VO/IP into an easy to understand concept that even your granny could use it- once she’s finished on eBay that is..
Skype is at once harmless, without hint of threat or cynicism or anything righter of right which scares the masses currently. Just great fun branding and free calls over the Internet!
So what is exactly is this ‘skype’ business?Skype is a ‘peer-peer’ Voice over IP network founded by none other than the men behind Kazaa, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Such was its popularity, that Google jumped the queue (or found it first, given their searching powers!) and bought the Skype Group in October 2005 for several gazillions of techno smarties (or ‘dollars’ to you and me).
Skype users essentially make telephone calls and video calls via their computer using Skype software and the internet. On the unusual basis that the system provides free communication between users of Skype software, this is certainly unique.
Sensibly, the product also allows Skype users to communicate with users of regular landline and mobiles. This software is currently available free of charge and can be downloaded from the company website.
Voice over IP has been available for years, why is this version so popular?Like many other ‘rebel technologies’ Skype is software of the people, of the young, the students, the creative, the affected (basically anyone under 25 who hasn’t got a mortgage to occupy their head space yet!) But also mad keen on Skype are the trendy 20/30/40 something’s, feeding on the latest cool gadget, something to take over when we bore of the I-POD. The only division is ironically within the technical community itself, where there is a debate over the ethics, (0’s and 1’s have ethics??) the legality (uh-oh, scary oddly-clod Computer monsters!) and the security (pc monsters!!) of the Skype technology. Like all things that are ‘cool’ Skype does things differently.
The fact that most of us don’t understand the differences such as ‘that Skype operates on a peer-to-peer model, rather than the more traditional server-client model’. or that the ‘Skype user directory is entirely decentralised and distributed among the nodes in the network’, seems to play into their hands, which means that we just consume and enjoy, which, let’s face it, is all we really want from our phones (plural these days!)
What’s next?
Like most ‘web 2.0’ technology, development teams already have the phase 2 of Skype ready and waiting to roll out. Look out for the following:
Skype Casts, Skype Zone and Skype SMS.
What they all do? Who cares, as soon as somebody we regard as even slightly ‘technically-wicked’ starts banging’ on about them, we’ll be hooking up, logging on and consuming the latest tech-cool offering. Well done those Skype people- isn’t wonderful when highly complex Internet technology is presented on a plate- remember your marketing basics, its the hole you sell, not the screw!
Gimme Gimme Gimme…
Find out more and download Skype for free at:
http://www.skype.com
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