Zack Rippy

Skype has just gone public with their latest tool: Skypecasts. Essentially, Skypecasts are online conference calls on steroids. This completely free service offers users the ability to go to Skype’s website and join or host a Skypecast. Skype allows up to 100 people to participate in a single Skypecast. They are hosted by Skype, so you don’t have to worry about your personal bandwidth limitations. Also, they are handled through Skype’s website, not the traditional Skype client. To create your own, you simply fill out the basic details of your topic and it will be published in the searchable online directory. You schedule the time and are given a unique url for your Skypecast that you can distribute as well. As the host, you have complete control over the conversation. You dictate who can talk and when they talk. You can permit one person to speak or allow everyone to converse simultaneously. Of course, it could get messy having 100 people talking over one another. Other participants can request “the microphone” if they want to talk. Participants can also text chat among themselves or with the host. If you have ever particpated in a traditional phone teleconference, the features should be familiar to you.

I am intrigued by this service. There are a lot of potentially great applications for this service. Businesses could use it for press releases. No one could speak until the host was finished with the announcement and then the he could open up the floor for questions. What about bloggers? There are a ton of bloggers out here who have established relationships online. What better way to get a group of like-minded bloggers together to talk? It could also be a great way for business groups to collaborate within their organization and with customers or telecommuting co-workers. Maybe WoW addicts could get together with members of their clan to plan raids or whatever it is they do.

Currently, it appears that all the Skypecasts get published into the directory on Skype’s website. I don’t see any way to create a private one. I also can’t find any method to allow selective participation – anyone can join - though as the host, you can kick individuals from your Skypecast. This is a beta/preview product right now. I imagine that once it is fully developed and “ready for prime time,” Skype will offer advanced features for a fee, such as: private (non-listed) meetings, multiple hosts and selected invitation. That would be fair to me, just like they offer Skype-to-Skype calling for free but charge to call outside of the Skype network. Though I still don’t like their “Intel exclusivity,” I am very interested in this new offering from the team over at Skype. If you are a Skype user, head on over and check it out! If you aren’t, well, go download the Skype application and sign up. It’s free!

On a related note, Skype 2.5 Beta is available for Windows users.

Skypecasts Home – Preview Page - Guide

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 at 9:06 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.