Sunday, October 08, 2006

I'm Skyped

Actually, I'm stumped. Well, let's say puzzled.

When my blog tip of the day in class a couple of weeks ago said, "Why not join in the conversation about Skype?" what I meant was, blog your protests about our very own SJSU making national news because of its plans to ban Skype from the campus.

I wasn't sure whether you knew about the proposed ban, or the fact that the story had made national news and that the blogosphere was all agog about it, but I assumed if I made you aware of those facts, that you would want to protest the issue. Because I assumed you all knew what Skype was — just as you all know what MySpace is, and just as you all know how to download music less than legally.

Last week, I was surprised that I wasn't seeing more SAVE OUR FREE LONG DISTANCE PHONE CALLS types of posts on your blogs. And this week I was surprised to learn that it's because many of you don't know what Skype is.

This is not meant to be a criticism. I'm just sayin', I'm surprised, is all. If you want to blog about why I'm wrong, or why I shouldn't be surprised.... please do!

9 comments:

Billy said...

Skype sounds like a neat thing, but doesn't everyone have free long distance as a standard feature with cell phones? that was my impression...

Dina Baslan said...

I agree with Jason. Even if we, students, use Skype to begin with, I dont think any of us would be using it on campus. I guess that is why Professors see it bigger of a deal since they do use it to communicate internationally in their offices.

Anonymous said...

Free long distance with cell phones? Really? That's news to me!

Steve Sloan said...

Free global long distance is just a part of what Skype has to offer. Using Skype your professors could Skypecast the class live over the Internet. Using Skype you could attend class without going to SJSU!
Skype offers video, text IM, file exchange, teleconferencing as well as voice communications all for the same price, free. Using Skype you can put a "Skype Me" button on your blog where your readers can contact you in real time to discuss a blog post. It is the (yes THE) real-time Web 2.0 collaboration technology. If we limit our imagination to the old telephony model it may seem like no big deal. But, if you think of it with blogging and podcasting in mind, it has the potential of being something so much bigger.

Jennifer Malulani said...

I have unlimited long distance on my phone, so I never figured that the school not allowing Skype on campus was a big deal. Most people have cell phones, and I think most carriers have unlimited long distance, or maybe people just haven't heard too much about the program, that could be why no one is really making a big deal about it.

megan rocko said...

I use Skype to talk to the in-laws in Poland so it is very helpful

Anonymous said...

i think those who would hurt most from the banning of skype are those living on campus who have loved ones living abroad (i.e. international students). however, most international students may not even know about this issue.

Drew said...

Well Skype really is a cool thing, but like I said before, it is a huge drain on the limited bandwith of the school.

I used to go to UCI and there P2P traffic was blocked not becuase of the copyright issues, but becuase of the high bandwith it uses. It slows down the entire network for everyone and with enough usage it could even bring down a network. This would be the same with Skype.

But with that said, Skype is a cool feature filled application. And to clarify what Mr. Sloan said, its free international long distance to other people with Skype. But if you were to call someone in England (a cell phone or a land line) with Skype you would have to pay. They've recently made Skype Out free to calls in Canada and the US to Canadian and US land lines and cell phones.

As for cell phone plans with unlimited long distance, that's usually with in the country, because once again its domestic long distance calling vs. international long distance calling. But with technology advancing everyday the lines are getting more and more blurry.

just my 2 cents.

Faith said...

Many other programs such as AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger offer many of the same options Mr. Sloan mentioned, including phone service, file sharing, voice/video chat, and of course, regular old instant messaging, and they are also free. The only difference is the blog and podcast capabilities, but there are other programs for those too.

I suppose there's the whole principle of the thing, but I guess was too busy listening to the oh-so-many podcast lessons I listen to instead of attending classes. (Sorry, I couldn't help it.)