A recent Facebook "post" by voip pundit Jeff Pulver on "real time" social media got me thinking about what what be an extremely useful Facebook app- a Skype app that would set up either ad hoc or scheduled conference calls.

Skype already has a multiperson audio/video calling capability and a host of add ons to do things like whiteboarding, application sharing and many others. I know there is already a "Skype" application for Facebook but it is bordering on useless (which is close to the utility of most Facebook apps that I have seen but that is another discussion)

more info Real time social media support

It is heartening to see the Skype response to the deafening roar from the anti Microsoft crowd saying Microsoft somehow caused the Skype outage:

It's not what you say. It's what they hear...We don't blame anyone but ourselves. The Microsoft Update patches were merely a catalyst - a trigger - for a series of events that led to the disruption of Skype, not the root cause of it. And Microsoft has been very helpful and supportive throughout.

more info Skype outage cause clarified

Hmm -- it seems like Skype has gone tits up. The client is in a continual "Skype (connecting)" state and has been for an hour or so. From the Skype status page:

UPDATED 14:02 GMT: Some of you may be having problems logging into Skype. Our engineering team has determined that it’s a software issue. We expect this to be resolved within 12 to 24 hours. Meanwhile, you can simply leave your Skype client running and as soon as the issue is resolved, you will be logged in. We apologize for the inconvenience.

12 to 24 hours!

more info Skype problems

Last year I commented (well maybe I whined?) about the lack of progress in the real time conferencing on the Internet front.

I hadn't really been paying much attention but lately I have been looking into the add-ins available for Skype. It seems that Skype's ubiquity (and availability of a usable API) has spawned a host of tools for the small ad hoc meeter including a couple of whiteboards, application sharing tools, and file sharing tools. With Skypes multi way audio/video conferencing functionality it looks like it might be starting to fulfil the promise of NetMeeting.

I haven't had a chance to use any of these add-ins though. Has anybody tried them? Which ones? Do they support Skype's multiparty functions?

more info Skype

In 1999 (I think that that is the timing) I was invited to go to Phoenix (on their dime) to visit a company (visitalk.com) with grand plans to build a "internet phone directory" mostly aimed at NetMeeting users. At the time I had some standing in the NetMeeting world being one of two Microsoft NetMeeting MVPs (the other was Robert Scoble of Scobleizer fame). I wasn't totally sure why I was invited (maybe it was a job interview?) but I found out they had grand expansion plans, somewhat vague business plans, and apparently $50 million dollars that they were burning through at a furious rate.

When I returned I added a mini review to my NetMeeting information site. Shortly after that apparently the money ran out, visitalk.com declared bankruptcy and that seemed the end of it.

But the site www.visitalk.com stayed. To this day at least 7 years after bankruptcy it continues to operate -- apparently able to take payments for the internet service that I doubt still operates.

A true ghost from the past.

more info Visitalk.com ghost

I have been involved with NetMeeting for so long that I have turned grey in the process. And NetMeeting has gotten old and grey in the process as well. Microsoft's decision to retire NetMeeting (after basically abandoning development in 1999) is no doubt the right decision. What surprises me is that there is no other product out there with the promise that NetMeeting once had (at least for me). What I expected from NetMeeting when it first came out was that it would evolve into a product that supported:

• ad hoc multiparty audio/video meetings (or at least multiparty audio) over the Internet without the need for a separate server (except perhaps for location and presence information)
• multiparty data sharing could happen during the meeting (application sharing, whiteboard sharing, file sharing seemed like a good basic set)

No product today supports this functionality set and it seems none have plans to do so. Msn Messenger supports one to one audio/video, and one to one data sharing. Skype supports serverless multiparty audio/video (currently just in beta I think). GoogleTalk supports very little despite a recent release and some misplaced hype.

What is the problem here? Does nobody else recognize the need? Or are there still some barriers that I am not aware of?

I recognize that along the way there were various technological and infrastructure barriers in the way:

• individual bandwidth restrictions were a problem -there is a lot of personal bandwidth connectivity in at least most of the western world -- not much dialup anymore
• computing power to process and mix audio/video in the past has been a problem -- today many machines have  more than ample computer power
• internet gateways were a block on some types of interaction -- but UPnP functionality in modern gateway devices has largely eliminated that problem

Is there some barrier still left that I am not seeing? Why hasn't this technology developed beyond 1999?

more info Digital Meeting on the Internet

Of this there can be no doubt. It really isn't "news" though. It essentially has been in a state of limbo since 1999 -- when the last update for NetMeeting was released by Microsoft (and the revelation that there will be no NetMeeting in Vista is no suprise). Shortly thereafter Microsoft chose to break up the NetMeeting development team and go in another direction. The machinations following that decision (at least for Microsoft software users) have been somewhat painful.

Pity though -- neither NetMeeting nor anything that followed have delivered on the initial promise (and what interested me in NetMeeting in the first place) - the ability to do real-time multiparty audio conversations with "shared space" data sharing over the internet.

more info H.323 is dead

Saw this about Skype 2.0 supporting 10 way audio conferencing! Wow!

more info Skype 2.0 10 way conferencing

A posting from Microsoft on the status of NetMeeting.

more info NetMeeting status

This appeared this morning.

Festoon looks like a product that has a chance to catch on. It seems simple, straightforward to use, apparently supports multiparty audio/video (and one to many with up to 200 viewers), and has an application and desktop sharing feature. It will piggyback on the Skype or GoogleTalk calling and presence functions. I really haven't seen it in action and don't know whether it is practical (especially from a bandwidth usage point of view) but seems to offer everything that I long ago wished NetMeeting had.

It seems to have a shortcoming that was also obvious in NetMeeting though (though there at least a pull through of other Microsoft product purchase was potentially possible)-- there seems to be no obvious way to make money.

more info Festoon looks interesting

This caught my eye:

'(www.verso.com) announced the rollout of a "carrier-grade applications filter" that can block so-called bandwidth drains such as Skype, P2P messaging, streaming media, and instant messaging. '

This could prove nasty for Ebay in its Skype purchase as well as other IM and P2P products

more info Skype, Msn Messenger, Vonage killer

It seems that the rumours have been true. Ebay is buying Skype. Various reports have put the purchase price around $4.1 billion. The question is why and why so much?

Various reasons have been bandied about - is there some synergy? Live auctions? Communications between buyers and sellers? Or is Ebay just spending some money to get into the VoIP game?

And why so much for a company with marginal technology and a tired strategy (give away your product in the hope that somehow you will find a way to make money)? The whole VoIP computer to computer thing has been tried before even with selling "extras" like connecting to real phones  -- all with miserable failure.

It seems like a pre bubble strategy in a post bubble world.

more info Ebay buys Skype

So Google has introduced a new instant messenger program/service (along the lines of a greatly simplified MSN Messenger). It has direct links to the Gmail system (much like Messenger's Hotmail links) and has basic IM and voice features. I don't really see anything compelling about it though.

more info Google Talk

Interesting study on web conferencing trends. According to this study NetMeeting is still the leader in that space.

more info NetMeeting persistent it seems

Apparently VoIP is passé. The new acronym used by those in the know is EoIP -- Everything over IP. I guess it was inevitable.

more info EoIP

"Microsoft planning VoIP softphone? Here’s why it makes sense by ZDNet's Russell Shaw -- I don't have any knowledge that they are, but I am beginning to think it could happen.The Seattle Times reports that during a morning keynote today at WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference), someone named Mr. Gates will show a Longhorn-prototype laptop with an auxiliary display screen built on the cover that would:"Display a few lines [...]"

Microsoft has been building some form of "Softphone"(a software program capable of making an telephone like audio call -- I assume is the working definition?) into all its products since Windows 95 so the predication is pretty safe in the broad sense.

There are a number of problems with "Softphone"s though, one is that to connect them to POTS phones(a requirement for a long time in the forseeable future) requires hardware and infrastructure -- which costs. No one so far has found a business model that allows this to happen in the general market (Skype maybe but the jury is still out). Microsoft and partners and a number of others have played with in this area for years with no result.  A second(perhaps reason why no viable business model has developed) is that the reliability and quality of the calls (at least over the general internet) has generally relegated such calling to hobby or toy status (again Skype seems to be breaking that mold slightly).

more info Microsoft planning VoIP softphone for Longhorn

I had a chance to participate in an audio/video call last night using the new Msn Messenger(7.0 released 2 days ago). Though I used be quite active in this area (using NetMeeting mind you) I haven't actually used this kind of technology for a long time. I don't know whether the new Messenger is that much better than the previous version in this regard but I was pleasantly surprised at both the quality of the connection (both ends were broadband) and the ease of connection (I am behind a UPnP enabled NAT).

If this keeps up I may have to stop using my standard statement with respect to internet based VOIP:

"The internet is a very hostile place for real time audio/video calling"

more info Msn Messenger VOIP quality

Microsoft to buy Groove Networks -- and Ray Ozzie to become Microsoft CTO?

This sounds too weird to be true but seems legitimate. Other news outlets are reporting the same news.  The Groove website and Microsoft website have the same story.

What will become of Gates in all this? Will Bill retire even more or is this a sign of more control -- the reports indicate that Ozzie will report to Gates? Ballmer -- where does he fit in all this?

Even weirder-- this quote from the Microsoft site:

"PressPass: You will be one of three Microsoft chief technology officers, along with Craig Mundie and David Vaskevitch, What do you think you bring to the role of CTO, Ray? "

Three CTOs -- isn't that stretching the meaning of "chief" a little?

more info Microsoft Grooving?

It seems that Microsoft is finally doing something about the Msn/Windows Messenger confusion (who would think to have two similar products with the same name except Microsoft -- for all their supposed marketing prowess they seem to make some really bonehead moves).

Microsoft is changing Windows Messenger's name to "Microsoft Office Communicator 2005" it seems.

So add one confusion -- take one away. A wash for Microsoft then I guess.

more info Messenger Confusion lessening?

More audio/video confusion in Messenger? It seems that the Logitech webcam feature will be expanded soon in Msn Messenger 7.0 to include audio and cause yet more confusion.

more info Messenger Confusion growing?

I downloaded, installed and am currently running Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta (the one they acquired via Giant Software). The installation and function seems to be straightforward.

Running it on my system however detected a "Spyware" threat -- RealVNC(which I legitmately run for controlling remote servers). I suppose it is a potential threat(if it were running a server) as it could allow remote control of your computer. Strangely enough though similar programs from Microsoft (Remote Desktop, NetMeeting) were not detected or mentioned even though they would offer the same threat level. I don't know if any of the commercial programs allowing remote control would show up as "threats" either.

I guess there is a thin line between potential threats and legitimate programs in some cases. I wonder where and how Microsoft draws that line? Based on commercial interest perhaps?

more info Microsoft AntiSpyware

These are some sites of products I am currently looking at:

• Asterisk -- an open source PBX(and everything else telephonic)
• E-lect -- an open source Plone SCORM LMS
• Thinking Cap -- an XML eLearning authoring and delivery system

more info Stuff I am looking at now

"Istanbul will replace Windows Messenger as the preferred client for Live Communications Server, though Windows Messenger will continue to be included within the Windows operating system, Microsoft officials said. " [link]

More confusion from the folks that brought you NetMeeting, Msn Messenger, Windows Messenger et al.

more info Constantinople?

It seems the QoS Packet Scheduler is installed and selected by default for network interfaces in both XP, XP SP1 and XP SP2. In some systems it seems to cause strange things to happen with NetMeeting (and MSN/Windows Messenger) audio/video. Symptoms like not transmitting audio/video or causing poor reception of audio/video have been reported. I don't know the exact cause (pre SP2 systems problems seemed to be related to use of Intel NICs) but in systems not on a network with a server managing QoS, disabling the QoS Packet Scheduler seems to be the best action(with no side effects).

To disable QoS Packet Scheduler

1. Open Network Connections. To open Network Connections, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.
2. Click the Local Area Connection on which you want to disable QoS Packet Scheduler, and then, on the File menu, click Properties.
3. If QoS Packet Scheduler is listed and checked in the Components checked are used by this connection box, then uncheck it.

more info QoS Packet Scheduler

I notice via Scobleizer that Zane Thomas is now somehow connected to Web Train. I will have to check it out. Looks like(at first blush anway) a Webex, LiveMeeting type tool. I am not sure what differentiates it in that field.

It seems like this type of tool/service is the wave of the future as NetMeeting disappears into the sunset.

more info Web Train