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Real time social media support
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)
Skype outage cause clarified
It is us philippine voip
to see the Skype response to the deafening roar from the anti Microsoft crowd saying Microsoft somehow caused the Skype outage:
It's not implementing voice over ip- 3276
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. pc to phone iraq
Skype problems
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 voip consultant
Meanwhile, you can simply leave your Skype client running and as soon as the Tucson Vonage
is resolved, H.323 Q.931 Analyzer download
will be logged in. We apologize for the inconvenience.
12 to 24 hours!
Skype
Last year I commented (well maybe I whined?) about the lack of progress in the real time conferencing on the Internet front.
I simultaneous voice and data mobility voip bts rel services
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 clip art voice over IP whiteboards, sips manufactures sharing tools, and file sharing tools. With Skypes multi way audio/video conferencing functionality it looks like vonage stocks
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?
Visitalk.com ghost
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 cheap pc to phone india
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 directv and vonage
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. broadvoice international simultaneous
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.
Digital Meeting on the Internet
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?
H.323 is dead
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 how to set up a voice over internet phone system in home
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 voip providers chicago
me in NetMeeting in the first place) - the ability to do real-time multiparty audio conversations with really free internet phone
space" data sharing over the internet.
Skype 2.0 10 way conferencing
Saw massachusetts resume H.323 C++
about Skype 2.0 supporting 10 way vonage hack
conferencing! Wow! call not approved vonage
NetMeeting status
A posting from Microsoft on the status of NetMeeting. what does the SIP Program has to do with Security
Festoon looks interesting
This appeared VoIP Escrow
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 sip codes
obvious way to make money.
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