Following up on last week’s two posts that coincided with the launch of the BlackBerry Playbook, iPad Competitor? and Infrastructure for New User Experiences, along with learnings from a recent Mobile Monday presentation on developer opportunities, this post will attempt to anticipate an example of the new user experiences that could result from the the technology behind the platform.

The primary question: Given that RIM wants PlayBook to become positioned as the tablet of consumer choice, can its technology foundation lead to the development of unique user experiences? Only if they bring unique benefits to the end user. But one can always speculate…

As background to this discussion, three comments:

1. With my current BlackBerry Torch I have two applications that are triggered immediately, via the Bluetooth connection, when I get into my car:
   • Make phone calls in a totally handsfree mode using the Voice Calling and Address Book applications on the BlackBerry
   • Commence logging my driving activity for tax purposes.
2. The PlayBook ads on local radio stations have highlighted three unique features:
   • Complete web browsing experience
   • Powerful applications
   • True multi-tasking
3. The BlackBerry Bridge feature, and a BlackBerry, are required to manage BlackBerry email, contacts and calendar – applications around which RIM built BlackBerry’s primary reputation. Great for enterprises that support secure BlackBerry communications but an inhibitor to broader consumer adoption until these native applications are available on the PlayBook. (Note also that Canada has carriers who do not charge additional for tethering.)

Certainly the three claims of their advertising ring true when it comes to the existence of the features. But what is the reality in terms of the user experience?

1. The Browser: combining its Torch Mobile webkit-based browser roots with its support of Flash, it appears that PlayBook would certainly be ideal as a complete, fully-featured browsing platform. In fact, it would even allow access to the web-based versions of popular email programs, including GMail, Yahoo Mail, MobileMe and the many web versions of popular client based email programs such as Outlook Web App (formerly Outlook Web Access).
2. Powerful applications: yes, there are some “powerful” applications (1700 according to this Mobile Gadgeteer report) that take advantage of the combination of QNX and a dual core processer. However, when I start using a new mobile device I initially look for clients that support cloud based services such as Twitter, Facebook, DropBox, Evernote, Four Square and the Google Mobile Apps suite of applications (Search, News, Mail, Maps, Docs, Calendar, Reader, etc.). Again all these services can be accessed via a web browser but they each have platform-specific clients to simplify the user experience and encourage adoption of the various services. However, they are lacking on PlayBook at launch time.
3. True multi-tasking: yes, this has been a feature of BlackBerry from day one; the QNX O/S certainly provides an even more robust multi-tasking environment. But until we see applications that take full advantage of the potential horsepower, users will not be driven to adopt PlayBook, especially as a consumer device.

Doing the BlackBerry “Thing”

Rim built its reputation on email and the associated personal information management applications. However, this feature only becomes available if you have a BlackBerry. The good news is that, given my experience with other Bluetooth-associated applications, these applications should become accessible on the PlayBook whenever the two devices are within Bluetooth range; also the BlackBerry Bridge incorporates BlackBerry’s industry leading security features. The bad news is that you need to have a BlackBerry to be able to use the number one application that drove the original adoption of the BlackBerry.

The Video Experience

PlayBook, in spite of its support of both front- and rear-facing webcams, does not support any video calling application at this time. Yet again the demonstrations of video content running in background and the underlying Playbook horsepower certainly would portend to seeing a video calling application. PlayBook needs to be participating in the mobile video calling space currently served by Facetime, Skype and Qik. While PlayBook certainly has its attractions as a top-of-the-line media player device, its underlying technology would seem to support its evolution into supporting real time video conversations.

But, in addition to the user experience its technology could deliver, PlayBook needs to find a way to access a large enough contact base that would drive immediate adoption. The real issue becomes one of interoperability; whom can you readily call with the launch of a video calling service? And across what platforms?  Certainly Apple, Google and Skype already have the large contact bases, well beyond the size of BlackBerry Messenger contact bases, that would be required to make a worldwide video calling application viable in the consumer market.

The Real Time Communications Experience

Which brings me to an application that would provide a significant boost to driving consumer adoption. Since the early 1980’s I have sold multi-tasking computers (yes, even mini-computers) and multi-tasking user experiences (DESQview). I have often commented on the value of BlackBerry’s multi-tasking. Most interesting is PlayBook’s lack of RIM’s heavily promoted BlackBerry Messenger application – one which I often use for private messaging to invited contacts; it could certainly take advantage of multi-tasking in some unique ways.

But there is one application lacking on BlackBerry devices that could demonstrate better than any other the benefits of multi-tasking on a QNX platform while driving consumer adoption. But there’s more! It also addresses the need for a video calling application that can immediately deliver an appropriate contact base.

With its support of voice, chat and video calling and its presence on a wide range of platforms, smartphones and other devices, Skype would be the ideal application to both demonstrate the power of PlayBooks’s technology infrastructure while driving accelerated consumer and prosumer adoption. Skype’s voice and video calls set the benchmark for voice quality and video resolution. Running chat in background as an interrupt-driven service, supporting desktop sharing and file transfer during voice and video calls are some of the Skype features that would perform best on a multi-tasking QNX platform with multiple webcams. And it would potentially become a benchmark mobile device for serving as a host for Skype’s Group Video Calling.

PlayBook Bottom Line:

At this time, PlayBook is a platform that demonstrates amazing potential for new user experiences. Its most immediate challenge is to bring into its applications library what many product managers would call the “hygienics” – the basic applications and services that users expect from any smart mobile device, whether smartphone or tablet. Google Mobile apps, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, Twitter, Evernote and Skype certainly fall into this requirement.

Skype serves as the most demanding example. With over 145 million active users across PC’s, smartphones (iPhone, Android, Symbian), TV’s and other devices), Skype has become one of those “hygienic” cloud managed services that consumers look for when making purchase decisions about smartphones and tablets. The business case is not about Skype-generated revenue; it’s not about competition with other services such as BlackBerry Messenger. Skype has become a “must have” application and makes the business case one about driving basic user purchase of the device. PlayBook provides all the technology infrastructure required, especially the video horsepower, to make Skype perform at its best on a mobile device.

As for introducing Skype on BlackBerry. Yes, Verizon and 3 customers can make calls to Skype contacts; however, only with a carrier-specific application. As demonstrated on iPhone, Android and Nokia smartphones, a carrier-agnostic Skype client would overcome a major barrier to consumer and prosumer adoption of not only PlayBook but also BlackBerry itself.

In conclusion Skype would not only provide a powerful demonstration of PlayBook’s underlying technology but also could be configured to provide one of the those “killer” applications that would establish user experience benchmarks for real time video calling, including conference calling.

Note: the image of a Skype icon on PlayBook shown above was reported by several bloggers when RIM first demonstrated PlayBook to the public at CES 2011; turns out this was an error. During March there came out reports that RIM may be developing a video calling app for PlayBook; this was vaguely confirmed in response to a question I asked at the Mobile Monday Toronto event. One primary issue is where would a large enough contact base come from? Certainly not BlackBerry Messenger with only 20+ million active accounts.

When I met Skype’s Vice President for Consumer Products, Neil Stevens, at CES 2011, one of his points was that he wanted to see more frequent Skype client upgrades, reducing the time between new upgrades from 12 to 18 months down to 2 to 3 months. Skype certainly demonstrated that last week when, two months after the launch of Skype 5.1 for Windows, Skype released Skype for Windows 5.2 with a set of subtle improvements that largely relate to the user experience when initiating calls.

The most obvious change is to the Call Bar. Whereas previously one would see:

the Call Bar has become:

The most obvious change is the switching of the order of the “Video Call” and (voice) “Call” buttons and the  elimination of a separate line for “Skype”, “Mobile”, “Office”, etc. numbers. No doubt the former is a result of two factors:

• the popularity of video calling where Skype claims that over 40% of all calls are now video calls and
• the recent introduction of Group Video calling as  a revenue generating premium service

Access to any type of voice call is now done via the Call Button, which has acquired an associated drop down menu. In turn this drop down menu provides the access to the contact’s various voice calling options. If the Contact’s presence is Online(), a Skype-to-Skype call would be the default.  Should be user not be available (Offline, Invisible or set for Call Forwarding ) but has entered a mobile or landline number into their Skype profile, there are three changes:

• the Call button has changed to read “Call Mobile” (or Office or Home)
• the Mobile, Home or Office number would be checked off as the default destination for placing a call.
• you have a “heads up” that a Skype-to-Skype call selection will result in reaching the contact’s voice mail

While the drop down menu shows a default based on presence, you can still select one of the other options to initiate a voice call but you are now forewarned that a Skype-to-Skype call to someone with one of the three “not present” statuses mentioned above could result in reaching their voicemail.

Note that the drop down menu also allows the addition of a phone number. Very handy when you know the contact’s phone number but they have not entered it into their Skype profile.

One more change to the Call Bar: the “Share Button” provides a ready access to sharing a Contact or File. If you are in a call, the Screen Sharing option becomes available.

Bottom line: while these changes can reduce the number of clicks to make a call or share information, they also provide, in a subtle way, readier access to Skype’s revenue generating Group Video Calling and SkypeOut services. With only 8% of Skype users actually using SkypeOut it would be interesting to see if these changes actually provide any more than slightly incremental revenues.

Watch for a post on the changes to the “Call Phones” menu.

Download Skype 5.2 for Windows here or go to Help | Check for Updates in your Skype for Windows client.

And should you even be making a voice call? Check out this New York TImes article: Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You. (Warning NYT may have initiated their pay wall.)

Related articles

• Skype for Mac 5.0 Goes Gold: Incorporating Beta Feedback and More (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype At CES 2011: It’s All About Video and Mobile (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype’s “Easy Conference Call” – A Hidden Gem (voiceontheweb.biz)

At his eComm America 2010 keynote presentation Monday morning, Skype’s recently appointed Chief Technology Strategist Jonathan Rosenberg provided his perspective on where Skype can introduce real time communications into “social sharing” activities.

Positioning the current state of social networking as personal broadcasting where a Twitter or Facebook message “broadcasts” your information out to a selected set of Followers or Friends, he went on to outline how these “broadcasts” were missing two key elements: emotion and interaction. And these broadcasts have a “random” aspect in terms of who receives them:

• Followers and Friends could cover a random mix of interest groups: family, work colleagues, special interest groups
• It’s a bit of a gamble as to who sees your ‘broadcast” message; some may follow every Tweet while others may be selective in what they see and take a few days to see a Tweet; others, for whatever reason, may never see it.

Bottom line is that current social networking is missing the emotion and interactivity associated with “social”.

Jonathan sees three “i’s” that need to be added for social networking to become totally social:

• involvement
• investment
• interactivity

And sees real time communications, integrated into a web property, as the infrastructure required to bring these to the table.

Jonathan then proceeded to give an example of each of the three “i’s”:

Real time and involvement: The quality of the real time call experience matters, as supported by statistics that Skype has mined out from their call detail records. It turns out that Skype’s SILK superwideband codec not only provides a higher quality, more readily understood voice conversation but also has been demonstrated to result, on average, in ~45% longer conversations, based on real Skype call detail records data. Phil Wolfe over at Skype Journal has more to say about this.

Real time and investment: here the example involved multiple people planning a trip together by sharing a desktop browsing travel web sites while carrying on a voice or video conversation.

Real time and interactivity – the virtual couch potato. While Jonathan gave an example, my own experience occurred a few years ago during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy when I was on a Skype call with a person in Sweden. We were both watching the ceremonies on our local television networks while discussing them in Skype voice and chat conversations.

This also brings to mind the couple who used Skype a few years ago for a remote courtship a few years ago; not only did a marriage result after a year of courtship via Skype but also a family with a couple of young ones.

According to Jonathan the bottom line is about turning a “me” experience into a “we” experience by escalating an asynchronous conversation (an initiating email or chat message) into a synchronous experience that can involve voice, chat, video and desktop sharing. And it involves bringing emotional and interactive elements into social sharing activities.

So what are the implications for Skype:

• These experiences need to be easy to invoke. What does it take to make users realize they can easily have these experiences?
• According to Jonathan, creating these experiences would involve invoking a web-based infrastructure into the Skype software offerings. Sounds like something we can expect to see later this year.
• What role would multi-party video play in these experiences? Can we expect to see multi-party video later this year?

Bottom Line: Is this all a precursor to some new Skype experiences or features that will be launched over the next few months?

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In two separate press releases over the past two days, OnState Communications has broadened the scope of its call center offering and made it more readily accessible to businesses without internal IT and communications support.

In the first press release Monday, OnState announced the addition of the Yuuguu screen sharing service that provides call center agents with a tool that facilitates both visual presentations and resolution of customer support issues. Yuuguu’s screen sharing allows a call center agent to have a real time collaboration tool with:

• on demand screen sharing
• moderator control of adding/removing participants
• sharing of keyboard and mouse control amongst participants
• easy escalation of a chat session to desktop sharing
• no download requirement for callers to participate

One significant point: recall that OnState’s chat service, while originating from an agent’s Skype or GTalk account, can be accessed by any caller with a web browser. Once again, using Yuuguu’s screen sharing, an agent can have a screen sharing session with any caller with access to a web browser. Yuuguu’s service is cross-platform, supporting both Windows and Mac PC’s with Linux support to come soon.

From the press release, OnState Partnership with Yuuguu Provides Total Customer Collaboration For Virtual Workforces:

OnState is the first and only provider to include integrated voice, text chat and screen sharing as part of a cost-effective, on-demand virtual communications service. The addition of Yuuguu into OnState’s solution enables sales and support staff and all virtual workers to collaborate with customers by sharing screens or even keyboard and mouse control to help demonstrate solutions or solve problems.

“With Yuuguu screen sharing capabilities, OnState users can now conduct virtual sales calls – from anywhere in the world – with visual presentations, product demonstrations, and interactive communications,” said Pat Kelly, CEO of OnState. “And using real-time screen, keyboard and mouse sharing, support staff can resolve issues, answer questions, and assist customers more efficiently. Best of all, the combined solution is delivered as a secure, device-independent, cloud-based service that requires no installation or embedded applications on the customer side.”

In a second announcement yesterday, OnState announced a partnership with Bandwidth.com as a complete end-to-end IP-based communications service over which a business can operate its entire OnState call center operation “in the cloud”. Basically, if an end user can plug an RJ-45 jack into an Internet service modem or connection, and plug IP-based phones into a router, they can have all the communications infrastructure required for using the OnState service. And  inherently the network supports additional communications modes such as chat and screen sharing, as well as Skype conversations.

Once again call center agents can be located anywhere geographically and access the service via a phone, softphone on a PC, including Skype or GTalk, or mobile phone. While Bandwidth.com is U.S.-based they provide international access with support for international numbers via Voxbone’s service. From the press release, OnState and Bandwidth.com Deliver the Cloud Call Center:

For companies that rely on call centers for sales or customer support, reliability and quality-of-service are key. Bandwidth’s FlexNetwork is architected with full geographic redundancy, with separate signalling and audio facilities for reliability and flexibility. When this is combined with OnState’s cost-effective virtual communications, the resulting solution is one that is highly available, easily scalable, and encourages customer collaboration through multi-modal interfaces like voice, chat, and web.

OnState’s core competence is call center functionality; having come from a legacy call center operation that was acquired by Cisco, it’s in their genes. But as for the underlying communications services, they are becoming more and more agnostic by giving their customers options to select the underlying service provider as well as the communications clients, whether they be a traditional phone set, a mobile phone or a software-based communications client, such as available from Skype or GTalk. It’s a case of the customer defining its requirements and OnState can provide a solution from a buffet of options while delivering on the economic advantages of IP-based communications.

But OnState’s ultimate advantage comes from making it possible for their customers’ customers to access a call center via a simple call from a phone, mobile phone, Skype, GTalk or a Click-to-Call button on a website. And, where the caller has PC access, adding modalities such as chat or screen sharing requires no customer downloads; it just happens via the browser. As highlighted at this fall’s eComm Europe, the value-add comes in minimizing user friction with intelligent decision making tools that value a customer’s time.

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There  was lots of lament and thrashing when Skype announced the forthcoming end to the Skype Extras program for distributing Skype software partners offerings. By the end of August, 2010 the Skype Extras item in the Skype for Windows client will go away. But does that mean the end for developing products and services that use the Skype API’s? Certainly three of Skype’s software partners do not think so; they each have recently launched either an upgrade or a new offering:

Scendix has released Pamela version 4.6, continuing the enhancement of its popular utility for managing, archiving and recording Skype calls. Pamela also lets you have some fun with its Rich Mood Message editor and Emotions player. But most importantly Version 4.6 provides the long sought recording of Skype video calls.

InnerPass last week launched version 2.0 of its Skype-enhanced document management offering. A new client, which, in addition to incorporating traditional document management features such as version management, also allows you to manage all your Skype activities – web collaboration with conference calling that also includes multi-party desktop sharing.

And yesterday, Netralia, whose Skylook and Call Burner offerings have built significant user bases since their 2005 and 2007 launches respectively, have just announced the forthcoming launch of Vodburner, “the first product on the market to create video podcasts”.

Netralia CEO Jeremy Hague, in the press release linked above, has nicely summarized the reality behind what is currently available to support development of applications that incorporate Skype:

“We are proud to announce the upcoming launch of VodBurner today, which comes at an interesting time for the Skype Developer community, given the recent announcement regarding the Extras programme.”

“I think Skype’s announcement has caught a lot of people off guard, and there may have been some overreaction in some of the media comments.   It is important to remember that the programme is only being closed in its current form.  This does not mean Skype is removing support for developer apps.”

“Skype has supported developers since 2004, with the release of the Skype Public API.  This support is continuing.”

“Extras Manager, a separate initiative, was introduced in early 2007.  The idea was great – provide new and existing apps with an advertising platform inside the Skype client, and a payment platform integrated with Skype Credits.”

“However, the implementation was lacking.  As you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, we believe Skype has made the right choice to curtail this programme.  We are hopeful that Skype will find another way to execute on the promise of some of the great ideas of the Extras Manager dept, but providers of Skype apps do not need to rely on this.”

“What we are about is providing great applications that make use of Skype’s technology to benefit people, who will hopefully go on to be our customers.  This was our approach before Extras Manager was first thought of, and will continue to be our approach regardless of the approach Skype takes in the future.”

The important point at this time is to emphasize that developers, who make the effort to use the API’s, can be successful and continue to dedicate resources to the development of new or upgraded products.

• They have all built significant user bases; InnerPass has has over 1.5 million downloads since its version 1.0 launch in January 2009.
• They have found new ways to work with Skype as a conversation tool.
• They have all developed products which contribute to making Skype disruptive about business.

Two previous posts on this subject:

• “Skype Extras” Is Dead; Long Live the Skype API’s!
• Demythifying the Skype Developer Story

And Scendix comments on the end of Skype Extras in their PamNews blog:

• No Skype Extras System anymore

Summaries and reviews of these new offerings will follow over the next two weeks.

Question: will we learn any more about Skype’s developer and/or business programs at next week’s eComm Europe? Nobody’s saying but … there is a keynote speaker from Skype, eComm Europe’s headline sponsor.

Last week Skype announced Skype for Linux desktop 2.1 Beta, the first new release of Skype for Linux in over two years. As a result it’s a huge “catch-up” release bringing to Skype for Linux many features that have been introduced on Skype for Windows and Skype for Mac over the past two years:

• Incorporation of Skype’s SILK codec which not only improves call quality for Skype-to-Skype calls but minimizes bandwidth usage
• High Quality Video support: VGA-standard video calling at 30 frames-per-second over a broadband Internet connection (minimum upload speed 384 Kbps)
• SMS send support (requires Skype credits)
• Chat: incorporates typing notification, message editing and other features into chat so we no longer get those “this person does not have a Skype client compatible with chat” type of messages.
• Contact groups
• Other “catch-up” details and improvements as listed on the Skype for Linux 2.1 Beta announcement post (link above) and in the release notes (link below).

Note that this is still a Beta release; it still has several “known issues”. Check out the release notes for details including details of how to make video work on Logitech Quickcam Manager and features that may result in crashes, such as accepting screen sharing from a Mac or Windows client.

The one recently introduced Skype for Mac/Windows feature that appears to be missing: initiation of a screen sharing session. The release notes indicate you may be able to receive a screen sharing session but you may also encounter a crash.

Bottom line: Finally a much awaited Skype for Linux that has most of the features of the current versions of Skype for Mac and Skype for Windows. if you’re a Skype for Linux user and have tried the 2.1 beta, please comment below on your experience. (Of course, Skype also appreciates having all bug details reported to Jira.)

Earlier today, Skype released to its Mac users Skype for Mac 2.8, following two beta releases over the past seven months (here and here). To summarize its feature set:

• Includes Skype’s SILK codec, offering not only 12KHz audio bandwidth for clearer voice calls but reduced Internet bandwidth demands. Effectively with this release SILK calls can be cross-platform between Skype’s Windows 4.x and Mac 2.8 clients.
• Screen sharing: using the Skype video channel, Skype’s screen sharing feature allows a user to share a portion or all of his/her desktop with one other party. No, it’s not a threat to Skype’s partners offering managed multi-party web conferencing services. Once again it’s simply an additional communications mode supporting a one-to-one Skype voice and/or chat conversation. Since it uses Skype’s video channel, it does not work during a Skype video call; nor can the call involve more than two participants. But three comments, having now used this feature several times in both Skype for Windows 4.1 and Skype for Mac 2.8 beta:
  • It’s very handy for complementing voice and chat conversations; simply click on the desktop sharing icon and the other party sees (a portion of) the desktop in his/her Skype client – but it can be expanded to a separate window or full screen.
  • It does allow sharing of streaming video services, such as YouTube, running on the desktop
  • It’s really driving awareness of the potential to do screen/dekstop sharing to a much broader user base than any of the web conferencing services have reached. These services see Skype video as an awareness generator for the potential of managed, multi-party desktop sharing services.
• Skype Access: if you’re on the road and desperate for an ad hoc WiFi connection, Skype Access provides per minute access services via Boingo. But if there is no free service in your hotel, restaurant or coffee shop and you don’t already have a Boingo account, then it becomes an alternative when you really need to connect. Charges are made against your Skype credits.
• Other new features now available to all Skype for Mac users include:
  • Follow friends’ and your own Mood Messages through a Mood Message chat session
  • Create “notes” for each of your Skype contacts – useful as a very basic customer relationship management tool, for instance.
  • Prioritization of your concurrent chat sessions in the Chat window; especially useful when you have more than ten concurrent chat sessions going.
  • Quick Add for adding contacts to a chat session; simply type a name into the Quick Add search bar and it’s there. A feature I hope we can also soon see in Skype for Windows.
  • Hidden avatars for incoming contact requests. Peter Parkes says it most discretely: “A small minority of Skype users have profile pictures which others may find unpleasant, and so they’re now hidden by default in contact requests.”

Amongst PC platforms I find Skype is most intuitive and most easily accessed via the Skype for Mac client; these features certainly enhance the management and versatility of options during Skype conversations.

Other posts:

• Peter Parkes, Skype for Mac blog: Skype 2.8 Gold for Mac out now.
• Raul Liive, Skype Garage, thanks the volunteers who translated Skype for Mac 2.8 into multiple languages.
• Release Notes for release build 2.8.0.659

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This week Skype has released final “Gold” versions of three of their software offerings: Skype for Windows Mobile 3.0; Skype for iPhone 1.1 and Skype for Windows 4.1, their primary client.

Skype for Windows Mobile 3.0 goes Gold: From Peter Parkes:

It includes two cool new features: SMS and file transfer. Sending SMSs using Skype is a great way to reach friends and family instantly anywhere in the world – Skype’s low rates mean that you won’t have to break the bank to do it. And file transfer lets you send files quickly when you’re on the move.

Download here. Check out the Release Notes.

Skype for iPhone 1.1. While available for the new iPhone 3G S and the iPhone 3G, most important is that this release requires that you have performed the OS 3.0 upgrade to the iPhone 3G (initially sold last July); it should be offered automatically when you next connect your iPhone to iTunes on a PC. This upgrade adds features such as Cut/Copy and Paste along with many other improvements.

As for the iPhone for Skype software, it adds voicemail and SMS features as well as some improvements to the user interface. It also adds support for several languages such that the language support comprises: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish and Traditional Chinese as well as various English versions.

This one needs to be downloaded from the App Store via iTunes or as an upgrade on the device.

Canadians are still awaiting a resolution of a G729 patent issue before Skype for iPhone becomes legally available in Canada. Canadians have to be developing a syndrome about being left out of certain Skype offerings freely available in the rest of the world. And  now many of us early adopters would like to be able to take advantage of Rogers’ iPhone upgrade offer.

Skype 4.1 for Windows goes Gold. By far the most useful new feature of Skype 4.1 beta has been the screen sharing where I have easily shared spreadsheets, performed PowerPoint presentations and reviewed Word documents, as long as the sharing in only with one other Skype user. (Remember this screen sharing is done via the Skype for Video channel for which only one-to-one video calls are permitted.) It also includes sound and video quality improvements. (The screen sharing is a catch-up to a feature available on Skype for Mac 2.8 beta for several months.)

Bottom Line: incremental improvements that provide evolution, not revolution, of the feature sets. My biggest issue is a request to restore complete support for Public Chat sessions where enhanced marketing support of this feature would drive new adoptions (or is it that Skype cannot figure out a business model for Skype for Public Chat? – purely my speculations).

Other posts:

• Rogers steps for up iPhone 3G customers. Early adopters of the iPhone 3G have a significant upgrade offer until July 31, 2009. I am given to understand similar offers are available in several other countries.
• Dan York: Skype launches version 4.1… (yawn)… still only Windows… still a fragmented product strategy

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Earlier this week Skype released Skype 4.1 Beta bringing back a few features lost in Skype 4.0 and introducing screen sharing (previously available with Skype for Mac 2.8 beta). From Raul Liive’s introduction post:

Skype 4.1 Beta for Windows brings to you long hours of work from our audio and video team. They have introduced screen sharing functionality into Skype for Windows and in addition to that they have also worked hard on audio and video quality and reliability.

In addition to the updates to the audio and video engines (incorporating the SILK codec) , Skype 4.1 restores birthday reminders (if you want to keep your birthday private, simply don’t enter it into your Skype profile) and exchanging Skype contacts. One other feature: it embeds Skype’s browser toolbars for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

But to put some more perspective on screen sharing (shown below is a screen shared from a MacBook using Skype for Mac 2.8 beta):

Desktop sharing is simply an additional communication mode that complements voice and chat conversation:

• It’s a complementary communications mode to chat and voice conversations
• It uses the Skype video stream; as a result you can either send video or display your screen but not both concurrently. Clicking on the video camera icon while sharing your screen will terminate the desktop sharing; click on the video icon again and video will commence.
• It allows either full screen sharing or a selected region (but not specific windows)
• The viewing party can see either a window view or a full screen view
• It is a one-to-one collaboration tool for one-to-one conversations; recall that video calling only supports one-to-one calls
• It provides an excellent way to enhance a conversation when editing documents, making a PowerPoint presentation or demonstrating a design or support issue.
• Updates are almost instantaneous and “snappy”
• It is the only screen sharing that allows sharing of full video activity such as showing a YouTube video. This capability results from its use of the Skype video channel which can handle up to 30 fps.
• It is NOT a moderator-managed conferencing collaboration service for multi-participant discussions and presentations.

Having been a beta tester for the browser toolbars, I’ll discuss them in a separate post.

Recall that this is beta software; you can find the Release Notes outlining features, improvements and bugfixes in Raul’s post. Take heed; there may still be bugs; I have already reported one. To quote Raul again:

which means that it might sometimes not follow your orders, but instead act on it’s own. In case this happens, please let us know by commenting on [his] blog [post], posting on the forum or reporting issues on our public issue tracker.

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Skype’s superwideband audio SILK codec is finally available for beta testing on Skype 2.8 for Mac Beta 2 released yesterday. I did a test call with Dan York yesterday where I was on a Windows PC with Skype for Windows 4.0 which supports SILK while Dan was using the new Skype for Mac 2.8 beta version. His subsequent Tweet, shown above on the right, says it all. I still cringe politely when not on a call with SILK support.

Otherwise the beta fixes a long list of bugs; the release notes document (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) outlines Known Issues as well as Fixed Issues. Two other changes:

• The My Account window is now embedded in the client itself (comes up for editing when you first install and log into the client)
• There is now a spectator window for screen sharing. Basically there is now an option to select a resizable portion of your Mac desktop to share as opposed to the entire desktop. (It still does not allow to you to select a specific window to share as is common with more fully featured web conferencing sharing¹.)

Desktop sharing (selection mode) as viewed on a Windows PC using Skype for Windows 4.0  sharing a selected portion of a MacBook desktop using Skype for Mac 2.8 beta 2. Note the SILK audio codec mentioned in the Technical Call Info.

Anxiously waiting to see Desktop Sharing as an additional communications mode in Skype for Windows… (along with full support for Skype Public Chat restored…)

Download Skype for Mac 2.8 beta 2 here. Full set of Release Notes.

¹ Recall that Skype’s desktop sharing is simply another conversation mode which can be activated across basic two party calls through the “Skype video” channel. It is not a full web conferencing service at all. Its one unique feature is the ability to handle share up to 640 x 480 video streams at 30 fps.

A year ago August IBM‘s Lotus Sametime Division announced the acquisition of Skype Partner Webdialogs to obtain their widely respected Unyte Desktop Sharing collaboration technology. About four months later we learned, from Lou Guercia, Lotus SameTime’s Director of Operations and Strategy, more about Unyte’s integration into the Lotus SameTime offerings. In that post on Lou’s presentation I asked:

Question: with IBM pursuing excellence on a service that comprises voice, video, chat and file transfer in a secure, encrypted environment, and with the stated goals of “working with their partners”, would this not result in a situation where IBM would be licensing Skype technology to provide a comprehensive real time multi-media communications infrastructure?

With announcements this week, including some at IBM’s annual Lotusphere 2009 event in Orlando, FL, it seems like that question is starting to get some answers..

Yesterday IBM announced “A Strong Fourth Quarter, a rarity these days“. ZDNet’s Dennis Howlett, in Can IBM sustain its momentum, goes on the provide some background, pointing out that most of IBM’s growth is occuring in its software division. Certainly IBM sees its Lotus Sametime division as a key to sustaining their momentum. Except it appears that IBM has reorganized their SameTime collaborative services into “a cloud-based porfolio of social networking and collaboration services designed for business” under a new name: LotusLive.

In a press release this past Monday, in conjunction with the annual Lotusphere event, Skype announced:

…. it will integrate Skype™ functionality with LotusLive (www.lotuslive.com), IBM’s new cloud services which are designed to help individuals build communities to work smarter, more effectively and more efficiently across and beyond their own companies. Skype’s voice and video calling will add rich, real-time communications capabilities to LotusLive, making it even easier for enterprises to collaborate in the cloud.

At Lotusphere 2009, IBM demonstrated the new Skype integration into LotusLive Engage, “an integrated suite of tools that combines your network [of contacts] with Web conferencing and collaboration capabilities like file storing and sharing, instant messaging and chart creation.”

Today we interviewed Peter Kalmstrom, Skype’s Program Manager for Toolbars, who had been attending Lotusphere to assist with the demonstrations. Peter made several points:

• This announcement covers only the first step of what will be a series of Skype integrations into the LotusLive offerings.
• The integration into LotusLive Engage is targeted at “businesses looking to collaborate inside and outside the organization to easily expand their networks…” In other words for businesses that need to include, say, sub-contractors, third party consultants, suppliers and buyers within their business operation processes.
• Within a LotusLive Engage contact profile, “Skype” fields have been added such that when a user clicks on a a name to bring up a profile card, the user can launch a Skype conversation and transfer files with a single click.
• The only additional requirement for engaging in a Skype conversation is that the initiating user must have a Skype client open.
• In addition to Skype-to-Skype calls, SkypeOut calls can also be made.
• Where several contact profile cards have been opened, a user can launch a Skype multi-party call
• Due to the nature of LotusLive Engage’s web architecture, the resulting Skype access is cross-platform; it does NOT require that the user have a Skype web (FF or IE) toolbar installed.
• A session can then also launch a Lotus Web Meeting (also known as a Lotus SameTime Unyte meeting).

Sounds like the Lotusphere demonstrations got the brainstorming going between Skype and IBM. In a concluding statement Peter said:

“We are enthusiastic about the partnership with IBM and we see a lot of areas where we can collaborate and help each other improve our services. We met with a series of executives at IBM during Lotusphere and the general feeling was highly positive.”

At the same time IBM announced Salesforce.com and LinkedIn integration into their LotusLive services. Andy at VoIP Watch comments on the competitive “collaboration and communications” space where IBM LotusLive, Microsoft Office Live and Google Apps are the key players.

With the IBM offering, we are seeing one more example of “Skype Everywhere”, in this case, being embedded into an offering that is key to IBM’s future success in delivering cloud-based outsourced business services.

Phil will have some comments on the technical aspects of this integration along with where he feels there are “deeper” integration opportunities.

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At CES 2009 COO Scott Durchslag spoke about “liquid communications” and “Skype Wherever, Whenever”. InnerPass has developed a business-class hosted document management system; they have been marketing it via private label to over 3000 businesses or project teams on several continents.Over the past year the InnerPass team has developed a Skype Extra application that introduces real time communications, and serves as an interface, into this system.  From their website:

InnerPass helps companies control their business critical files from anywhere and anytime. Our applications are delivered thru various Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings that are entirely web-based. InnerPass primarily offers its applications to end users through a network of partners who can private label and embed the software service into their own solutions or provide as a stand alone service.

InnerPass Share and Collaborate Home Page

InnerPass starts out its communications enhanced service, called InnerPass Share and Collaborate, by building persistent document “meeting rooms” that store mission critical documents such as FDA filings, engineering and architectural drawings, legal agreements, real estate papers and other business documents which require:

• access across a geographically dispersed team of project stakeholders
• persistent storage for asynchronous 24/7/365 access
• version management

amongst other features. InnerPass has taken their document management service experience and gone a step further to support file sharing, collaboration and real time communications. They embed, within their own Skype Extra client, the ability to launch and hold real time voice and/or chat conversations, whether informal ad hoc sessions or scheduled conference calls, to discuss the underlying projects, sales meetings or other business team activity.

Using InnerPass Share and Collaborate, a user can set up a “meeting room”, store documents, launch conversations and share a designated screen for presentations or demonstrations. The room’s host can designate and invite team members from amongst his/her Skype contact list, grant permission to their team members to contribute or modify room content. From anywhere in the client, any team member has the ability to schedule and launch conference calls or group chats using the integrated Skype services.

InnerPass offers three levels of their collaboration service. A free service supports up to 3 meeting rooms with a maximum of 3 participants and 1GB of file storage (max 25MB per file). Offering perpetual file storage, the Professional Plan at $4.95/month supports 10 meeting rooms and up to 10 participants in each. The Business plan, at $12.95/month, allows up to 40 rooms and 40 people per room. Their last plan, launching in March,  is designed for the SMB (Small to Medium Size Business) will offer additional features including access to their hosted full document management service. Update (May 2009): Inner Pass also offers a “Custom” service with the potential to host a webinar with hundreds of attendees, record calls and other features.

Over the past few weeks I have experienced a few sessions using InnerPass; the InnerPass  team has been very responsive to suggestions made for improvements, especially with respect to some speed issues that are now resolved. It now works reliably with both Skype 3.8 (still Skype’s latest release for general use) and Skype 4.0 Beta 3.

Since obtaining Skype Certification and its subsequent launch last fall, InnerPass has registered over 270,000 users (as shown in the graphic) growing virally amongst Skype users with little publicity. You can download via Tools | Do More | Get Skype Extras using Skype 3.8 or Tools | Extras | Get Skype Extras under Skype 4.0 for Windows beta 3. Normally it should show up as “InnerPass Share and Collaborate” under the “Sharing” category but until a bug is resolved by the Skype Extras team, you may find it as “Share, Collaborate, Communicate”.

InnerPass CEO Steve Parsloe has written a more detailed post for Skype’s Autumn 2008 Developer Newsletter. And in early December Steve along with his colleague Bill Trail, Vice-President, Business Development discussed InnerPass as a guest on SquawkBox.

As mentioned at the beginning, InnerPass’s Share and Collaborate service is a representative example of making Skype available anywhere there is an opportunity to benefit from real time conversations. Skype has enabled InnerPass to offer real time conversations to virtual meeting rooms incorporating file and desktop (or screen) sharing. And it brings large enterprise services down to a cost level such that any individual, mobile professional or small business can afford to benefit from a collaborative document management service.

Tags: InnerPass, Skype Extras, collaboration, file sharing, Skype, Steve Parsloe

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Screen sharing is a feature, not a collaboration service. Skype has left the door open for all its developer partners to continue to build their businesses with Skype embedded into their offering, especially when it comes to fully featured collaboration services.

When you come from a technical background it’s easy to confuse features with a complete business offering. For instance, “screen sharing” or “desktop sharing” is a feature appearing in many Web 2.0 offerings. But a full collaboration offering for a business environment involves bringing together several features that bring a significant ROI to the customers.

Just to recall my own career history, working with Quarterdeck we did have some “utility” products that initially generated revenues of  up to $50MM per year. But eventually they became features within a larger business offering – in this case the operating system itself. Memory management and multi-tasking were not always easy sells but had a market at the time. Today these features are hidden within Windows. It took Microsoft about six versions of Windows to get multi-tasking and memory management right. We also had the same experience developing a web browser; Microsoft eventually incorporate web browsing into the operating system as a feature.

I have also been close to the collaboration market for many years. In fact Webex is an outgrowth of a whiteboarding service that Quarterdeck had acquired. When Quarterdeck evaporated (was sold to Symantec for remnants of software intellectual property), the team with whiteboarding experience went on to found Webex. Recently acquired by Cisco, Webex is now a major player in large enterprise collaboration activities, including desktop or screen sharing. It requires an entirely different underlying robust and scalable infrastructure to meet large and medium enterprise collaboration needs

Yesterday Skype added a screen sharing feature to Skype for Mac. We can expect it to show up in Skype for Windows in the near future. But, as I mentioned in my post about Skype for Mac, it is a feature, not a full collaboration environment. There are several Skype Partners who offer a full business collaboration environment; they are not threatened by Skype’s screen sharing feature. In fact, they may make Skype users more aware of desktop sharing and start looking for a more complete collaboration environment.

What is in a fully featured collaboration environment?

• A common feature for all is that they support real time collaboration sessions for as many as 500 participants. That’s not going to happen in any basic Skype client.
• Secondly Skype for Mac’s screen sharing involves turning the user’s desktop into a virtual webcam that goes through the Skype video channel. In other words you can do screen sharing or Skype video calling but not both concurrently. With the offerings mentioned below, the desktop sharing and other collaboration activity is via TCP/IP channels that are independent of the Skype video channel.
• Take the recently launched InnerPass Skype Extra “Share and Collaborate, Communicate“. Here is an enterprise document management company that has found a way to add Skype features that ride on top of their document management infrastructure. That infrastructure supports engineering drawings, FDA records, and business contracts amongst other document-intensive, mission critical documentation. As a result they have developed a Skype Extra that creates persistent “document rooms” which business teams may access for real time conferencing sessions. But the documents rooms can be accessed by individual team members between these team conferencing sessions. Version tracking is an important feature here. (A more detailed post on InnerPass’s offering is coming soon.)
• Yugma provides the ability to collaborate across Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. There are session moderator features to switch presenter, start and stop recording, manage participants’ role as active or passive, etc. It’s a complete collaboration environment where the voice channel could be Skype’s multi-party calling or, for more robust voice conferencing, use HiDef Conferencing.
• Lotus Sametime Unyte has been the poster child for an entrepreneurial Skype partner. Now within the IBM fold, it is being targeted to IBM’s enterprise customers within a larger role of collaboration that was pioneered by Lotus Notes.

No, Skype is not going after Webex or Yugma’s or InnerPass’s or the Lotus Sametime markets. Skype’s screen sharing is another feature that’s a peer with file sharing, video calling, IM/chat or SMS messaging. It’s a person-to-person calling complement; it’s not for highly robust, readily scalable business grade collaboration services.

Phil, I’m sorry but Skype for Mac’s screen sharing, to which I had access about a week before yesterday’s announcement, is a feature not a collaboration service. Let my repeat my statement in my initial post on Skype for Mac:

Skype for Mac’s screen sharing feature is sufficient to support discussion issues as a complement to a voice and/or chat conversation; it is NOT by any means a replacement for fully featured desktop or application sharing offerings such as Yugma, Inner Pass or IBM’s Lotus Sametime Unyte. It’s “just” screen sharing. In fact, it is one of two options on the Skype for Mac’s “Share” button, the other being file sharing/transfer.

Bottom line: There are lots of opportunities for independent developers who want to develop a complete offering that makes an independent business.

Update: Alec Saunders, who as Microsoft’s original Internet Explorer product manager, led the effort to make MSIE a feature within the operating system – and effectively killed Quarterdeck’s web browser, has his comments on this situation. Bottom line here is that Inner Pass and IBM are embedding Skype into other services they already offer.

Gerry Blackwell at VoIP Planet recently reviewed Yugma where he entitled it CoIP (Collaboration over IP):

Is there room in the market for yet another Web-based collaboration service? After all, we already have WebEx and GoToMeeting, among others. Yugma Inc., a Minneapolis company that recently launched version 3 of its collaboration software, thinks the answer is Yes.

We tested the service recently and came away frustrated initially, but in the end reasonably impressed.

The Yugma service lets session leaders invite participants to a Web conference—including non-registered users who have not downloaded client software. Participants can then view and interact with a presenter’s desktop or with a single application program on his system.

Yugma provides a free audio conference bridge—you pay only long distance charges—and offers as well a version integrated (though not 100 percent) with Skype. Client software is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Read the full review here. It appears that he tested it during a period in April when Yugma was still addressing some Version 3 access and stability issues. Using Yugma yesterday for a three-party session where two parties were totally non-technical, I found that the participant access process had improved significantly. Once into a Yugma Version 3 session I have always found the desktop sharing to become very transparent to the meeting topic at hand and to perform quite well with respect to following changes from the shared desktop.

Last fall I reviewed Convenos Meeting Center, positioning it as “Your Conference Board Room on the Internet”:

Convenos Meeting Center is a complete conference sharing collaborative environment suitable for both ad hoc and scheduled meetings as well as a virtual meeting room for “persistent”, project-dedicated business activities such as key account sales strategizing or product management support.

I mentioned, however, that one shortcoming was that its Application Sharing was sluggish and found that Convenos only officially supported Internet Explorer as its platform. Last month Convenos released an upgrade that:

• has “lightning-fast” Application Sharing
• supports Firefox as a browser platform
• is Microsoft Vista tolerant (sessions have been known to run successfully on Vista platforms; they just are not sure they have found all the “gotchas”.)
• reduces installation time by about 50%
• provides enhanced Outlook support for scheduling meetings

I did some basic application sharing tests this week and can report that the Application Sharing is very fast — even transmitting some video (but not audio) from the PGA Tour site. Convenos incorporated a “mirror server” into their collaboration architecture to accomplish this.

As a default Firefox browser user, login to, and operation of, my ongoing “Test” Convenos Meeting Room worked just fine. One of the Convenos support staff, who served as another meeting participant during my trial session mentioned above, related a CMC experience where he did not realize two of the participants were on Vista until they mentioned it well into the session. On the other hand they want to do further testing before claiming full Vista compatibility.

If you are currently a Convenos user the upgrade will be offered automatically when you next log into your Convenos subscription. Should you encounter any difficulties with this route, then simply Uninstall your previous installation, reboot your PC and log back, you will have a successful upgrade. The end result performance is definitely worth taking the time to upgrade.

Convenos can be accessed either as an independent browser-based Windows application or as a Skype Extra as a complement to Skype conversations. The Convenos Meeting Center Extra, which recently received Skype certification, provides a complete “instant meeting” Convenos web conferencing mode which incorporates the upgraded Application Sharing . .

And in the same April Convenos newsletter, they remind of the “Green” benefit of collaboration in addition to the well-known cost and productivity benefits:

Did you know that aviation is the world’s fastest growing man-made source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and is a major contributor to global warming? Per PlanetArk, 16,000 commercial airplanes release 600 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. A recent survey conducted by a leading unified communications consultancy group revealed that 70% of organizations surveyed rated “reducing organizational carbon footprints” as a key driver in their decision to invest in web conferencing and collaboration.

In these times of rapidly rising fuel prices, one more consideration for using collaboration tools.

Testimonials from Convenos customers:

“We were looking for a more affordable way to sell our product that was not only intuitive but also integrated with Salesforce.com and Skype. Convenos Meeting Center met all our requirement expectations. Our sales team launches their meetings with Convenos Meeting Center inside Saleforce.com and are now able to utilize Salesforce.com to its full capacity. Convenos Meeting Center is fun to use and is a win-win solution. I like the tool, and I like the Convenos support team.”

Bertrand de Petigny of Odotech Inc.

“Prior to adopting Convenos Meeting Center, my company was using another web presentation solution that was clumsy, restrictive and quite expensive. We switched to Convenos for its ease of use, unrestricted monthly usage and great customer support. Interactions with the team at Convenos have been timely and pleasurable. Prior to using Convenos, we were accustomed to traveling for in-person meetings. We are now saving over 50% of our normal travel expenses, allowing us to reach more customers. I would highly recommend the Convenos Meeting Center solution.”

Dan Grace, Business Development Manager, Acclaim Telecom Services

“Since adopting Convenos Meeting Center with Skype integration, my company has saved almost 75% in collaboration and conferencing fees. Convenos has allowed us to streamline our communications both internally as well as with our partners by having the ability to work on blue prints and building plans on-the-fly without having to be in the same location. We are very satisfied with the solution and recommend it.”

Brian Anson, Project Manager, McHugh Construction

One unique aspect of Skype is its very “fluid” or simple approach to adding a another contact to a Skype call to build a conference call. Select “Add a Caller”, select the contact to be added (or enter a phone number, if on SkypeOut), click “OK” and the caller is added. I find I am having more frequent multi-party calls as a result of this simplicity of establishing conference calls for up to 10 participants.

In the past web collaboration has been associated with structured meetings, involving scheduling, emailing invitations and other activities just to set up a desktop sharing session. But a “fluid collaboration” (YouTube video) approach – that allows users to spontaneously escalate conversations from voice and text to incorporate desktop sharing, persistent file sharing and whiteboarding – provides a more intuitive ad hoc process. Yugma’s Web Collaboration for desktop sharing has an architecture that has taken this approach.

Another user consideration: The increased acceptance of both Mac (a record 2.1 million sold in the fiscal 2007 fourth quarter) and Linux (especially Ubuntu) platforms in the market a has led to rising demand for Skype Extras that run on these platforms. A good place to start is a desktop sharing application that is effectively agnostic to the operating system and runs seamlessly in cross-platform scenarios.

Yugma, who has been providing desktop sharing services for a couple of years, recently released a version 3 upgrade to its Yugma Skype Edition, Once installed on a Windows platform simply go to Tools | Do More in the Skype for Windows client and “YugmaSE Team Collaboration” will appear on the drop-down list; on the Mac, install Yugma from the Yugma website and then simply start Yugma Skype. Currently Linux participants can view a session but not host one.

Initiating a session: Once Yugma Skype has been installed via the Skype Extras menu, the ad hoc launch process involves:

• launching the host’s Yugma Skype client via Skype’s Tools | Do More menu¹
• inviting the participants available as Skype Contacts via an “Invite Participants” window which sends a Skype chat message with the URL,
• inviting participants who are not Skype contacts via email address entry from the same window; the resulting email, containing a link, should arrive within a couple of minutes of sending; and
• letting the Yugma Skype client download onto the remote participants’ PC’s and install (if this is the first Yugma Skype session on the PC)¹

Operations: The basic Yugma Skype Toolbar provides an overview of several features:

• Begin Sharing: launches the sharing of your own desktop
• The “mouse” desktop icon controls mouse and keyboard sharing with other participants in the session.
• The mannequin image icon allows you, as the host, to change the presenter who would then share his/her desktop.
• The “page” icon launches a file sharing client.
• The crossed sticks icon opens up a drawing toolbar to provide annotation
• The circle starts session recording
• The right arrow commences playback of a recording
• The double circle allows you to upload a recorded file to your PC
• The matrix image launches the session scheduling website page for those events when you require scheduled collaboration..

The Session

The session above is a shared Mac desktop being viewed on my Windows XP Professional laptop.

The host has various options as represented by the toolbar shown above with additional options in the Action drop down menu shown on the right. Usually the host would “Begin Sharing” simply to ensure the connectivity with other parties is there. At that point the host can continue sharing or change the presenter to one of the other participants. Other options in the toolbar are described above. One should note:

• Users must set up the voice conferencing independently using any of the voice services shown below.
• Participants can be invited in either an active sharing mode or a passive viewing only mode.The host would also need to add them to the voice conference call. Only “active sharing” participants are able to share their desktops – when invited by a host on a Professional account.
• Underneath the bandwidth indicator and to the right of the Session ID number is a Click-to-Copy button with three options as shown. Very handy for launching spontaneous, ad hoc sharing sessions when in a Skype conversation.
• Changing presenters, sharing desktop controls, session recording, scheduling and shared file space require one of the Professional accounts beyond a 15-day trial period.
• Yugma Skype will share either the entire desktop or one selected application. Presenters should make sure their screen is not showing any confidential information.
• The “Shared File Space” client provides a “persistent” shared file space where up to 100 MB of “sharable” files may be stored for retrieval either during a session or later. The host has access to his/her Shared File Space even if there are no other participants in a session.
• Persistent Meeting mode: you can leave a meeting open for various participants to join by keeping the same Meeting ID and communicating it to parties with whom you want to do desktop sharing in the normal course of your activities. The host can also “dismiss” participants at will.
• In the upper right corner of the client is a bandwidth indicator; it should be at least two bars strong to have a continuously reliable sharing session.

In our tests, involving two parties, we found that changes on the screen, such as text chat entries and changing the focus window, were transmitted quite rapidly; only the live video of the Skype call could not keep pace with the video movement. Remote display quality is excellent; while normally it will default to an optimum size on a remote PC there is an option to adjust the remote viewer size (File | Settings) for best viewing.

I have found the combination of Yugma Web Collaboration and Skype’s conference calling algorithm make it a very easy process to set up a small training session, to present a personalized product demonstration or to incorporate desktop sharing into a customer support call. If you are in a Skype call and have a persistent meeting implemented, along with a Skype chat session running, it’s as simple as restoring the Yugma client, Copy a URL via the click-to-copy button and Paste the resulting URL into the chat window. The other party(ies) then click on the URL to access the session.

The essentials:

• Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS/X 10.3 or higher, Linux; also requires Java 1.5 or later.
  • If the user does not have Java installed – often the case for Vista installations, a Yugma-specific Java client is included in the Yugma Skype installation¹.
• Yugma Skype runs on its own (Java) client; however, there is interaction with the web browser; either IE 6 or 7 or Firefox 2.0, as well as the Safari browser on the Mac.
• Meeting Types: Instant, Scheduled, Recurring (through persistent meeting ID)
  • Invite participants via a Skype contact list and email to non-Skype participants
• Packages:
  • Free: (“Personal”) 10 participants plus host; basic desktop sharing, instant sessions only; website support only; sponsor advertisements.
  • Professional: 10, 30, 100, 500 participants: $9.95/month, $29.95/month, $69.95/month, $89.95/month respectively. Adds “change presenter”, remote participant mouse and keyboard controls, session scheduling, web session recording and playback, shared file space. Webinar features on 100, 500 participant packages. Enhanced support via email, phone and web.
  • A 15-day free Professional 10 trial is available to test the service.
• Voice services:
  • Currently voice operates independently of the Yugma Skype client; conference hosts have several options for setting up a conference call:
  • Skype’s inherent conference call feature (up to 10 participants via either Skype or SkypeOut);
  • and three low cost extended conferencing services (long distance charges may apply)
    • Yugma’s Free Teleconferencing service: call into +1-605-475-4261; long distance charges may apply.
    • HighSpeedConferencing (up to 500 participants on either Skype or landline/mobile phones) with HD Voice for Skype participants.
    • iotum’s FreeConferenceCall service (an optional Facebook application – not supported by Yugma)
  • as Yugma’s desktop sharing is almost totally independent of the voice service, you can also use other VoIP or PSTN conferencing services. However, with Skype there is ready access to Skype contacts for chat and other Skype features
• Private (as disclosed by host’s sharing the session ID through individual invitations);
• Public via a Widget button or, for Professional 100 and 500 subscribers, the Yugma Webinar feature.
• Capacity: up to 500 participants
• Web Session Recording (Professional subscription required)
• Access: via Skype Extras (Tools | Do More – Windows only), Skype Extras website (Windows and Mac) or from Yugma’s website (Windows and Mac editions).

Positioning: Yugma Skype is unique for its cross platform desktop sharing capability and providing a free basic desktop sharing service that can have as many as ten participants in a desktop sharing session. Session recording, whiteboarding and file sharing options make it a more feature rich platform. Operation of desktop sharing sessions has always been quite smooth, with rapid refreshes, and transparent to the platform itself provided there is adequate bandwidth on the Internet connection; this is where the bandwidth indicator has been a valuable aid.

Strengths:

• Cross platform desktop sharing (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Free basic desktop sharing for host + 10 participants
• Rapid remote viewing updates from shared desktop
• Rapidly switch presenters (shared desktop)
• Choice of interactive (Sharing) or passive (Viewer) modes for remote participants
• Several voice conferencing options
• Display versatility: options to resize the remote desktop viewing window
• Web session recording
• Connection strength indicator

Weaknesses:

• Needs the ability to include voice conference information within the desktop sharing invitations
• Lacks tight integration of Skype voice channel to voice conferencing options
• Lack of Outlook integration for email invitations

Other posts in this series on collaboration tools:

• Desktop Collaboration: Ten Years Later – The Skype Impact
• Desktop Collaboration: The Skype Ecosystem Expands

¹Windows Vista users may encounter several “permission” windows during installation as explained in Alec Saunders post about “Sun’s Tactical Error on Java”. This may change with Windows Vista SP1.

One unique aspect of Skype is its very “fluid” or simple approach to adding a another contact to a Skype call to build a conference call. Select “Add a Caller”, select the contact to be added (or enter a phone number, if on SkypeOut), click “OK” and the caller is added. I find I am having more frequent multi-party calls as a result of this simplicity of establishing conference calls for up to 10 participants.

In the past web collaboration has been associated with structured meetings, involving scheduling, emailing invitations and other activities just to set up a desktop sharing session. But a “fluid collaboration” (YouTube video) approach – that allows users to spontaneously escalate conversations from voice and text to incorporate desktop sharing, persistent file sharing and whiteboarding – provides a more intuitive ad hoc process. Yugma’s Web Collaboration for desktop sharing has an architecture that has taken this approach.

Another user consideration: The increased acceptance of both Mac (a record 2.1 million sold in the fiscal 2007 fourth quarter) and Linux (especially Ubuntu) platforms in the market a has led to rising demand for Skype Extras that run on these platforms. A good place to start is a desktop sharing application that is effectively agnostic to the operating system and runs seamlessly in cross-platform scenarios.

Yugma, who has been providing desktop sharing services for a couple of years, recently released a version 3 upgrade to its Yugma Skype Edition, Once installed on a Windows platform simply go to Tools | Do More in the Skype for Windows client and “YugmaSE Team Collaboration” will appear on the drop-down list; on the Mac, install Yugma from the Yugma website and then simply start Yugma Skype. Currently Linux participants can view a session but not host one.

Initiating a session: Once Yugma Skype has been installed via the Skype Extras menu, the ad hoc launch process involves:

• launching the host’s Yugma Skype client via Skype’s Tools | Do More menu¹
• inviting the participants available as Skype Contacts via an “Invite Participants” window which sends a Skype chat message with the URL,
• inviting participants who are not Skype contacts via email address entry from the same window; the resulting email, containing a link, should arrive within a couple of minutes of sending; and
• letting the Yugma Skype client download onto the remote participants’ PC’s and install (if this is the first Yugma Skype session on the PC)¹

Operations: The basic Yugma Skype Toolbar provides an overview of several features:

• Begin Sharing: launches the sharing of your own desktop
• The “mouse” desktop icon controls mouse and keyboard sharing with other participants in the session.
• The mannequin image icon allows you, as the host, to change the presenter who would then share his/her desktop.
• The “page” icon launches a file sharing client.
• The crossed sticks icon opens up a drawing toolbar to provide annotation
• The circle starts session recording
• The right arrow commences playback of a recording
• The double circle allows you to upload a recorded file to your PC
• The matrix image launches the session scheduling website page for those events when you require scheduled collaboration..

The Session

The session above is a shared Mac desktop being viewed on my Windows XP Professional laptop.

The host has various options as represented by the toolbar shown above with additional options in the Action drop down menu shown on the right. Usually the host would “Begin Sharing” simply to ensure the connectivity with other parties is there. At that point the host can continue sharing or change the presenter to one of the other participants. Other options in the toolbar are described above. One should note:

• Users must set up the voice conferencing independently using any of the voice services shown below.
• Participants can be invited in either an active sharing mode or a passive viewing only mode.The host would also need to add them to the voice conference call. Only “active sharing” participants are able to share their desktops – when invited by a host on a Professional account.
• Underneath the bandwidth indicator and to the right of the Session ID number is a Click-to-Copy button with three options as shown. Very handy for launching spontaneous, ad hoc sharing sessions when in a Skype conversation.
• Changing presenters, sharing desktop controls, session recording, scheduling and shared file space require one of the Professional accounts beyond a 15-day trial period.
• Yugma Skype will share either the entire desktop or one selected application. Presenters should make sure their screen is not showing any confidential information.
• The “Shared File Space” client provides a “persistent” shared file space where up to 100 MB of “sharable” files may be stored for retrieval either during a session or later. The host has access to his/her Shared File Space even if there are no other participants in a session.
• Persistent Meeting mode: you can leave a meeting open for various participants to join by keeping the same Meeting ID and communicating it to parties with whom you want to do desktop sharing in the normal course of your activities. The host can also “dismiss” participants at will.
• In the upper right corner of the client is a bandwidth indicator; it should be at least two bars strong to have a continuously reliable sharing session.

In our tests, involving two parties, we found that changes on the screen, such as text chat entries and changing the focus window, were transmitted quite rapidly; only the live video of the Skype call could not keep pace with the video movement. Remote display quality is excellent; while normally it will default to an optimum size on a remote PC there is an option to adjust the remote viewer size (File | Settings) for best viewing.

I have found the combination of Yugma Web Collaboration and Skype’s conference calling algorithm make it a very easy process to set up a small training session, to present a personalized product demonstration or to incorporate desktop sharing into a customer support call. If you are in a Skype call and have a persistent meeting implemented, along with a Skype chat session running, it’s as simple as restoring the Yugma client, Copy a URL via the click-to-copy button and Paste the resulting URL into the chat window. The other party(ies) then click on the URL to access the session.

The essentials:

• Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS/X 10.3 or higher, Linux; also requires Java 1.5 or later.
  • If the user does not have Java installed – often the case for Vista installations, a Yugma-specific Java client is included in the Yugma Skype installation¹.
• Yugma Skype runs on its own (Java) client; however, there is interaction with the web browser; either IE 6 or 7 or Firefox 2.0, as well as the Safari browser on the Mac.
• Meeting Types: Instant, Scheduled, Recurring (through persistent meeting ID)
  • Invite participants via a Skype contact list and email to non-Skype participants
• Packages:
  • Free: (“Personal”) 10 participants plus host; basic desktop sharing, instant sessions only; website support only; sponsor advertisements.
  • Professional: 10, 30, 100, 500 participants: $9.95/month, $29.95/month, $69.95/month, $89.95/month respectively. Adds “change presenter”, remote participant mouse and keyboard controls, session scheduling, web session recording and playback, shared file space. Webinar features on 100, 500 participant packages. Enhanced support via email, phone and web.
  • A 15-day free Professional 10 trial is available to test the service.
• Voice services:
  • Currently voice operates independently of the Yugma Skype client; conference hosts have several options for setting up a conference call:
  • Skype’s inherent conference call feature (up to 10 participants via either Skype or SkypeOut);
  • and three low cost extended conferencing services (long distance charges may apply)
    • Yugma’s Free Teleconferencing service: call into +1-605-475-4261; long distance charges may apply.
    • HighSpeedConferencing (up to 500 participants on either Skype or landline/mobile phones) with HD Voice for Skype participants.
    • iotum’s FreeConferenceCall service (an optional Facebook application – not supported by Yugma)
  • as Yugma’s desktop sharing is almost totally independent of the voice service, you can also use other VoIP or PSTN conferencing services. However, with Skype there is ready access to Skype contacts for chat and other Skype features
• Private (as disclosed by host’s sharing the session ID through individual invitations);
• Public via a Widget button or, for Professional 100 and 500 subscribers, the Yugma Webinar feature.
• Capacity: up to 500 participants
• Web Session Recording (Professional subscription required)
• Access: via Skype Extras (Tools | Do More – Windows only), Skype Extras website (Windows and Mac) or from Yugma’s website (Windows and Mac editions).

Positioning: Yugma Skype is unique for its cross platform desktop sharing capability and providing a free basic desktop sharing service that can have as many as ten participants in a desktop sharing session. Session recording, whiteboarding and file sharing options make it a more feature rich platform. Operation of desktop sharing sessions has always been quite smooth, with rapid refreshes, and transparent to the platform itself provided there is adequate bandwidth on the Internet connection; this is where the bandwidth indicator has been a valuable aid.

Strengths:

• Cross platform desktop sharing (Windows, Mac, Linux)
• Free basic desktop sharing for host + 10 participants
• Rapid remote viewing updates from shared desktop
• Rapidly switch presenters (shared desktop)
• Choice of interactive (Sharing) or passive (Viewer) modes for remote participants
• Several voice conferencing options
• Display versatility: options to resize the remote desktop viewing window
• Web session recording
• Connection strength indicator

Weaknesses:

• Needs the ability to include voice conference information within the desktop sharing invitations
• Lacks tight integration of Skype voice channel to voice conferencing options
• Lack of Outlook integration for email invitations

Other posts in this series on collaboration tools:

• Desktop Collaboration: Ten Years Later – The Skype Impact
• Desktop Collaboration: The Skype Ecosystem Expands
• Convenos Meeting Center: Your Conference Board Room on the Internet

¹Windows Vista users may encounter several “permission” windows during installation as explained in Alec Saunders post about “Sun’s Tactical Error on Java”. This may change with Windows Vista SP1.

Tags: Skype, YugmaSkype, Yugma, Skype Extras, HighSpeedConferencing, iotum, FreeConferenceCall, desktop sharing, Skype Conference

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Learn more about Yugma’s Fluid Collaboration approach for enhancing conversations vs traditional Structured Collaboration – a meeting centric approach.

Return to Yugma Product Overview

Yugma is an easy to implement desktop sharing service that allows users to collaborate by quickly sharing individual applications or full PC desktops, whether on Windows, Mac or Linux PC’s. Think of desktop sharing as an auxiliary conversation mode that readily complements voice, text and video conversations.

With an ability to quickly change the shared desktop and provide remote access to a shared desktop, Yugma allows users to collaboratively create and edit documents; train employees, agents and customers or facilitate enhanced customer support. Skype Certified, Yugma hosting sessions are readily launched from the Skype client as a Skype Extra; however, other participants do not need to even have Skype. The desktop sharing sessions are complemented by audio conferencing services that can accessed via either Skype, usually at no charge, and/or conventional telephone connections where long distance charges may apply.

Summary from Vendor:

Yugma is a very easy to use and inexpensive Web Collaboration Tool that lets Skype users instantly share content and ideas using any application or software over the Internet. Whether they are using a Windows, Mac or Linux computer, they can connect on-demand and in real-time with co-workers, clients, friends and family — regardless of whether they are across the city or country or even around the globe. With Yugma, collaborating with others is just a click away. Others will be able to instantly “see what you are talking about,” , enabling you to get more done “together” and “collaboratively,” without ever leaving their computer regardless of where you are.

Yugma’s Philosophy: Why Web Collaboration Needs to be Reinvented (A YouTube Video)

Live Demonstrations Find a session convenient to your schedule.

Ideal for: Home Office, Small and Midsized Businesses (< 1000 employees), Education (University, K-12), Network Marketing Businesses, Non-Profit Organizations, Religious Organizations, Affinity Groups.

Publisher’s Expertise and Background:

Yugma (pronounced YOOG-MA) believes that web collaboration is for everyone, not just people in big companies. We also believe good ideas deserve to be shared, regardless of resources or geographic location. These two beliefs drove us to create an easy-to-use, affordable web collaboration service that works on Windows, Mac and Linux. It is our hope that Yugma will help you to share your ideas, learn more, stay connected with coworkers and customers, feel the need to fly to fewer meetings, and have a more successful business.

The name Yugma is a word from the Sanskrit language meaning “the state of being in unified collaboration.” Yugma, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in Minnesota, USA and has offices in Minneapolis and India.

Three Video Demonstrations

Product Review

Contact Information:

• Website : http://www.yugma.com
• Phone: +1 (952)400-0357
• Email: info@yugma.com

Products and Services : Yugma has a free Personal service and several Professional services.

• Personal: provides basic desktop sharing across Windows, Mac and Linux platforms for up to 10 participants where the host is the Presenter; it also includes a 15-day trial of the 10 user Professional service.
• Professional 10/30/100/500: adds many features such as changing the Presenter (or shared desktop), remote mouse and keyboard control, session recording and playback, shared file space (up to 100 MB) and annotation/whiteboarding tools. The Professional 100 and 500 also include Webinar management features.

Requirements:

• Skype: Version 3.x or later
• Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

Product Acccess :

• Latest Version: Version 3.0 (April 1, 2008)
• Skype Extras [Tools | Do More | Get Extras];
• Via website: Schedule/Start/Join a Session

Installation and Operating Comments:

A Host may install the Yugma client from the Skype Extras Manager and subsequently launch sessions via the Skype Extras Manager. Participants are asked to install Yugma from a link sent either to an IM chat session or an email address. Upon clicking the link participants will go through a client installation process that ends up with a “Join a Session” window. Upon entering an identification name and email address the particpant will be brought into the Host’s session.

Personal: as this is a free offering, Yugma will request a user name and email address from each participant resulting in the creation of a Yugma account for each participant; normal privacy policies are in place for the use of the email address.

As Professional is a paid-for option, Yugma will only require that the host have a Yugma account; other participants in a session will be asked to enter an ID name for the session and for an email address; however, this email address will only be used for session tracking purposes and not for promotional purposes.

Offerings and Pricing:

• Personal Yugma: Free, supports up to ten participants
• Professional Yugma 10/30/100/500:
  • 10 Participant: $9.95/month
  • 30 Participant: $29.95/month
  • 100 Participant: $69.95/month
  • 500 Participant: $89.95/month