From the EDge

Depending on how you read many of my posts I may seem to be trolling for Skype weaknesses to highlight. Today let me at least praise the keynote presented by Skype’s Jonathon Christensen at the Internet Telephony Conference this week. These industry conferences are not known for too many real edgy positions and controversy, but the title of “VoIP is Dead” for his talk certainly was a wake-up.

Since Skype never liked to use VoIP as a descriptor of their services, declaring VoIP dead may have been some semantic trick to make a point. It was not a ruse. For those entrenched in the world of telephony it was direct message to contemplate beyond your belly button, so to speak. This message in one form or another has been delivered for over ten years, but this was a good summary of what is right in front of our faces.

I do want to take this moment to specifically praise Skype because I have often felt there was a lack of appreciation for the marketplace where they are a key participant. I am pleased to see an acknowledgment, specifically from a post-eBay Skype that there is some vision about the overall environment. Now I would be impressed to see an organization energized by this market recognition. You can see the talk summary at the TMCnet website.