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Skype's COO Heads For Greener Pastures
Scott Durchslag, Skype’s chief operating officer, is leaving the company to return to the United States, the company confirmed on Tuesday. His departure has set off a broad reorganization of Skype’s management, with executives shuffling responsibilities. Josh Silverman, its chief executive officer, will likely take a more hands-on operational role at the company.
Mr. Durchslag “has decided to leave to pursue career interests within the global Fortune 500 technology, telecommunications and media industry,” wrote Brian O’Shaughnessy, head of communications for Skype, in response to an inquiry about Mr. Durchslag’s departure. “During his tenure at Skype, Scott delivered consistently strong financial results, transformed the mobile business with new products and partnerships and launched Skype for Business. He also recruited a world-class team and strengthened our marketing orientation.”
I'm interested to see what Skype does with themselves now that they are free of eBay. I never understood why eBay bought them in the first place, and apparently - neither did eBay.
Now their COO is bailing to "pursue career interests" in the industry and so the guys at the top are playing musical chairs with his responsibilities. It seems they plan to broaden the Skype platform so that companies can plug the service into their products (*ahem* Nokia phones).
Use Skype Without A Desktop Client
"Meet Imo.im, the latest web service that is silently building a killer platform. We reviewed it last week, but the need didn’t arise until today."
Record Skype Conversations with iFree Skype Recorder
Plenty of teachers use Skype and when I get a better soundcard I'll be sure to give it a try, but I've always liked the ability to record phone calls, especially for interview purposes.
If you are a Skype user, then iFree Skype Recorder should be useful freeware. iFree Skype Recorder is a simple tool which can record conversations in Skype. The interface is very simple and easy to use. Once installed, you will need to grand access for this application to use Skype and this authorization is needed only for the first use.
Features of iFree Recorder;
- It’s FREE with no limits attached
- Automatic or manual recording capabilities.
- Can be used to record Skype2Skype calls, SkypeOut/SkypeIn calls, Conference calls.
- Choice to record different side.
- Store your calls to MP3 format (Using Lame MP3 Encoder).
- Easy to track record history.
- Built-in audio player.
- UI friendly, easy to use.
Talkshoe Worldwide Using Skype
The VoIP Users Conference is Fridays at 12 noon ET: http://VUC.me
Thanks to our friends at Digium and PhoneFromHere.com you can now join our live VoIP Users Conference free from anywhere in the world using Skype.
How can we count the ways (to listen or talk)?
Widget: http://phonefromhere.com/vuc/
Or call Skype:vuc.me (g711->ZipDX) or
Call Skype:ld.vuc.me (g729->Talkshoe)
If you run a successful Talkshoe conference or podcast, you might be interested in arranging this service.
My address while in New York
Living out of a suitcase has been a challenge, and travelling alone is not for the faint hearted. However, staying in the one place will keep the edge off as everything in New York moves so fast, (including the men)
Suffice to say I'm residing in the garment district in Times Square between Manhatten and Soho. The garment district reminds me of Surry Hills in Sydney, (but then Sydney probably copied New York)
I've been staying in touch on skype, but feel excited that I can send post cards, CD's and stuff with a US return address. I am returning to carrier pigeons and real cards rather than ecards, and stamped letters rather than email.
I'm not online much as I'm out and about creating stuff, busying myself with fresh ideas and projects. The online sabbatical has been great, and while I miss the usual social networking, I'm investing my energy elsewhere.
I miss everyone and prefer to talk on skype rather than email. Sorry Mr Tweet, I love you but real time on twitter doesn't cut it when your 4,000 miles away from home --- so let's get real and talk.
My skype ID is: thedivinemisswhite
Teacher Reflections of Technology Use during School Closure
Second interview of teacher reflections on using technology during the school closure at KIS. The high school went out for a week due to H1N1, but several teachers kept the learning going by using technology. Sara Patterson, an English teacher, reflects on her experience in this podcast. Enjoy!
Skype 101 - Costs and Benefits
Skype is a great service. While it’s future path has seemed a bit uncertain lately, due to various ownership and IP issues, I bet that it will survive and hopefully even give Google Voice a bit of serious self-supporting competition. If you’ve ever watched listened to any of Leo LaPorte’s fantastic podcasts at www.TWiT.tv or watched the live video feed at live.TWiT.tv (coming soon to a television near you), you know how great the audio and video quality of Skype calls can be. (Feel free to eMail Leo@TWiT.tv and encourage him to have someone from www.GoogleVoiceSecrets.com on This Week in Google and/or This Week in Tech.J) Skype is VOIP, so the quality is subject to network issues and especially the quality of the connection at both ends. On the other hand, most of my Skype-to-Skype calls sound noticeably better than regular, hard-wired, landline calls. So why am I writing about Skype here?
(1) I added a comment to an earlier article of mine, pointing out the benefit of being able to use Google Voice with Gizmo5 in order to be able to make free phone calls from Wi-Fi enabled airplanes:
http://www.googlevoicesecrets.com/make-and-receive-google-voice-calls-directly (2) Bruce Wagner pointed out that Oprah made a Skype call from a Virgin America flight earlier this year:
http://www.virginamerica.com/va/press/2009/May/Virgin_America_First_Airline_to_Offer_Fleetwide_WiFi.html (3) I replied with a comparison of Oprah’s impressive, flashy video call and what most of us really would like as our next step up in connectivity. That reply started to include a detailed breakdown of the pluses, minuses and costs of using Skype that got to be longer than my original reply itself and seemed like it might be of general interest to more readers that just the ones that drill down into the comments section of old articles, so I am posting it as a stand-alone article here.
To call real phones with Skype, you either need a (cancelable) subscription to Skype ($3 per month gets you voicemail and unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada) or you will need to buy Skype Credit for outgoing calls to almost all countries worldwide. The drawback with Skype Credit is that the smallest amount that you can buy is $10. The unlimited outgoing calling portion of the subscription used to be known as SkypeOut and used to cost around $3 per month (without voicemail). In order to receive calls from real phones, you will need to get an “online number”. I think that that is a terrible name for the service – if your colleagues are online, they can already call you for free. The purpose of an “online number” is to allow people that are offline to be able to call you, using regular phones. An “online number” currently costs $60 per year and does NOT include voicemail! (Two years ago, it was known as SkypeIn, cost $30 per year and did include voicemail!) Why would you need voicemail on an outgoing calling system, but not on an incoming phone line? It is available separately for your incoming line, for an extra charge ($20 per year). For my business, all I needed was a nice sounding incoming business number with voicemail. If I didn’t answer the call when it came in, I could call my customers back on my regular landlines. Fortunately, there is a “Trick”. Unfortunately, I’m not sure who’s “Tricking” who here. J Most places on Skype’s site which refer to buying an “online number” or voicemail have a link telling you that you can “Save with a subscription”. What does that mean? For $36 per year ($3 per month), you can unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada and voicemail for an entire year. You can also buy and “online number” for incoming calls for 50% off, which would work out to $30 per year. All totaled, you’d have everything that you need to make and receive phone calls on your computer, including voicemail, for $66 per year. This is comparable to what full-service customers of Skype have been paying for the past four years for unlimited incoming calls, with voicemail and unlimited outgoing calls to the U.S. and Canada. My current complaint is that all I really want from them today is unlimited incoming calls and voicemail. That used to cost me $30 per year. Today, it would cost $80 per year, unless I knew the “trick” of getting a basic subscription, adding unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada and bringing my actual cost down to $66 per year. Of course, the subscription costs $3 per month, billed monthly. There are also a number of “answering machine” add-on programs for Skype that will give you VoiceMail-like functionality, if your computer is turned all of the time (and all goes well). Some are freeware and/or have freeware junior versions. The one that I have the most experience with is PrettyMay, but I haven’t tried their paid version or upgraded their free version in over a year. Hypothetically, you could sign up for a Skype subscription for $3, get an “online number” for $30 for a full year, cancel your Skype subscription (your Skype account and “online number” will continue to work just fine) and try out a third-party program as an alternative to Skype’s voicemail. Your Net Cost? As little as $33 per year. Maybe that’s the real “Trick”, but it’s also a compromise. $66 per year was an unbelievable deal before MagicJack came along offering phone service for $40 for the first year and $20 for each year after that (assuming that their prices stay steady and that they stay in business). Bruce Wagner is the expert on all things MagicJack and I’m hoping that he’ll write up an overview of MagicJack for us sometime soon. (Bruce was also the first person to tell me about Skype, GrandCentral and a number of other telephony services. He has his experts that he talks to, but he is my expert. You can read Bruce’s insights into every subject under the sun (and then some) at http://brucewagner.posterous.com/.) www.GoogleVoiceSecrets.com needs to do another article discussing the specialized hardware that you may want to buy to use with Skype or Gizmo5. The most important single item that you can get is a basic wired headset with a boom microphone. I find that the $7 ones from MicroCenter work just fine. The next step up is an adapter to let you plug in a real telephone to your computer. I have had a $60 one from D-Link for the past two years. It’s great when it works, but I find that it’s software is very flakey. Also, it’s Skype-only. (I’m sure that this is only a software issue.) There are also stand-alone Skype phones that work with Wi-Fi connections. Now that Gizmo5 is a part of Google, I’m sure that most hardware manufacturers will be making sure that their devices are compatible with both Skype and Gizmo5. I’ve even seen drivers for sale that will let you use your MagicJack hardware with Skype and Gizmo5. Of course, all of that brings us back to MagicJack and three of its best points (over and above the price):
(1) The MagicJack hardware does allow you to plug in a “real phone” right out of the box. (2) MagicJack is possibly the simplest system for non-techies to set up themselves. (3) The sound quality on MagicJack is also very good (subject to the normal amount of VOIP related dropouts). For households with a computer that’s turned on 24/7, MagicJack means that there’s probably no reason to ever go with Vonage or Comcast Digital Voice. (I would love it if an organization like Consumer Reports really compared MagicJack, Vonage, Comcast Digital Voice, Skype, Gizmo5 and other major VOIP options under controlled conditions and publish the results for everyone to see.)
Steven (at) GoogleVoiceSecrets.com
Employers Get Social in Recruiting
Seeing more and more employers arming their greatest asset - their employees - as digital ambassadors for recruiting. Two benefits:
- Employees already self-select a network that harbors a level of capability and subscribes to shared values.
- Employers spend money to incent and engage digital recommendations from employees versus slotting fees for job-posting sites.
Employers sidestep recruiters to tap social media
Toronto-based entrepreneur Razor Suleman needs to hire 17 people over the next month.
He could have chosen traditional methods –from newspaper ads to online job boards or head hunters – to fill the IT, sales and marketing
positions at his rewards and recognition business.
Yet in a soft job market
, he and a growing number of employers are favouring an option they say is faster, more efficient and a whole lot cheaper: social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn. The shift marks a sea change for the world of recruiting as the use of employee and customer networks to find candidates becomes the new normal.
“The world has changed – it will never go back,” said Mr. Suleman, who runs I Love Rewards Inc., which advises companies on employee incentive and recognition programs.
His approach is simple: distribute job postings to his employees, who then place them on their Facebook status updates, tweet them to friends who re-tweet them, and share them through LinkedIn networks. He sent out word about the jobs last Friday; this week, his company expects 1,000 people will show up at its two open houses.
Mr. Suleman underlines the potential savings with a comparison. The average cost of a newspaper ad is $5,000, while an online job board (which he still uses for niche positions) costs $700. Recruiting firms charge a percentage a new hire's salary; the price tag of using one to fill all 17 jobs would be $260,000, he figures.
Instead, he's paying a total of $1,800 for wine and cheese at the open house.
Across Canada, hiring remains tentative as employers wait for more signs of a recovery. But as demand increases, many companies are thinking about recruiting again – in the most cost-efficient way possible.
Interest in using free social media to recruit employees is surging. When the Toronto-based Human Resources
Professionals Association organized a presentation on the topic last month, the room was overflowing.
An expert in social media and recruiting is Arieh Singer, director of digital strategy company TMP Worldwide; he now gives public speeches two to three times a month on the topic to human resources workers. The traditional approach to recruiting has changed to methods that can better measure where applicants are coming from. Essentially, employers want to more closely track their cost of hires.
Canada has one of the highest rates of social media usage in the world, he says, so employers must “fish where the fish are.”
Building these channels – even before hiring plans are in place – also allows a company to quickly find candidates if demand suddenly surges. “If demand turns and you need to ramp up, it gives you more flexibility – social media allows for broader broadcast of that,” Mr. Singer case.
That's the case for Future Shop. The Burnaby, B.C.-based company is planning to hire 5,000 people for the holiday season and, this year, is relying much more on Facebook, Twitter and its own community website to do so. It has advertised the jobs on its Facebook page, which has more than 17,000 followers, and also put the word out on its website and Twitter page.
“It's certainly playing a larger role in our recruitment process,” spokesman Elliott Chun said. “It's definitively something that's cost-effective. But most importantly, we know that's where a lot of Canadians are looking [for jobs], and we want to be right there with them.”
Fitness firm Best Body Bootcamp is another example. It runs fitness programs at 10 locations in Toronto, and plans to expand throughout Ontario and the rest of Canada, hiring more than 40 people by next March. And it aims to do all of its recruiting by e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.
“It's brought our recruiting costs down to effectively nil,” founder Roger Nahas said.
The big online job boards that charge for ads, meanwhile, have seen a steep slide in postings. Workopolis job ads fell 36 per cent in October from the same month last year. At Monster Canada, online postings were 26 per cent lower in the third quarter than last year.
Robert Waghorn, Montreal-based spokesman for Monster, pegged the drop to both recession-era cost controls and a more permanent shift into social media. “It's fair to say it could be both,” he said. “There's no doubt there's a shift in the industry.”
That shift comes amid Monster's longer-term decision to diversify from an online job site into offering a range of career management services.
isn't suitable for all jobs, of course. High-end, niche positions will require a different approach, such as the help of corporate head hunters. Jobs in industries where people are less connected, such as trucking and transportation, will need other channels. And a tightening labour market may well cause employers to open their wallets to find good candidates again.
But for reach, speed and recruitment branding, experts say social media is here to stay. Just on Wednesday, for example, more than 400 Canadian job postings appeared on tweetmyjobs.com from employers ranging from Rio Tinto, to TSX Group, Bombardier, Suncor and Mercedes-Benz Canada.
A trend that's just emerging in the world of recruitment is interviewing via Skype and other telepresence technologies. There are some good resources out there with tips on how to prepare for your Skype interview.
