An External Perspective:

A Viewpoint on Skype from 18 Months with Skype Journal

Jim Courtney, SkypeJournal

Jim Courtney has been writing posts for Skype Journal since April, 2006. He first experienced Voice over IP technology in early 1996 with one of the first VoIP software programs running on 125 MHz Pentium PCs over dialup connections. Bringing a background in technology business management, including sales, marketing and business development, he has provided both product reviews and industry perspectives related to developments in building businesses around Voice 2.0. We asked Jim a few questions about Skype and the Skype Developer Program.

What is your perspective on Skype as a Skype user?
Should developers bother to develop with Skype?
What are your views on Skype as a development platform?
What do you find it takes for a developer to be successful?

See what are Jim's answers

Updates

What is new in the Developer Zone?

October FAQs These are the latest Developer requests, Skype Technical services has resolved for you (FAQs)

API bugs solved or fixed These are the latest API bugs, Skype Technical services has resolved and fixed for you. Thanks again for reporting these in our issue tracker (Jira).

API access security update Following the outbreak of a worm that affected some users of Skype for Windows, we have decided to change the way applications get access to the public API the Skype client provides. In order to protect Skype users against this type of attacks, we've decided to start handling code-signed applications differently from these that are not. For applications that come with a valid code signature (e.g. Authenticode), the handling logic remains unchanged. For non-signed applications, Skype will not pop up a dialog box, but will raise a "missed event" notification instead. The user can then click on the event notification, open the access dialog, and decide what to do next. This new logic is already included in Skype for Windows 3.6 beta. For more details, read Changes in the API access authorization logic in the DevZone Blog. And stay tuned to the blog, as there may be some last-minute updates regarding this before Skype 3.6 goes gold.

Partner section

Pretty May's second certified product: Call Center

Halina Mugame from SDP with Jacky Fu from Pretty May
PrettyMay Call Center has been our partner for about a year and they just got their second product Skype certified. Congratulations! So, I think now is the right time to find out how they feel and what they think about our certification process?

We feel great as our products are approved by Skype side. Certification process is extremely efficient. The Skype professional support team never let us wait even one day after we submitted the Certification request.

The very first time when we tried to use Skype were attracted by its perfect voice quality, cheap SkypeOut calls, compact GUI, no annoying advertisements, etc. Then we found a lot of people have been using Skype, so we decide to make a small add on using Skype Public API for them.

Before developing for Skype our team didn’t organize until we decide to develop products for Skype. So each team member has its own developing experience.

I think we have a good start on the Skype based business, and we need to keep moving on it as Extras Manager gives our products an opportunity to show them to Skype users directly from Skype client.

Read more

Lester presents

Why SkypePrime is useful for your business

Lester Madden, SDP Platform Manager

Chances are if you have developed a Skype extra at some point you will have received an email, Skype chat or a call from a user looking to get support. Something is broken and they are looking for help or they need some help on getting the most from the product.

You’ll probably have a FAQ database that you can point them to but the fact of life is some people want to speak to a real person and will pay for the privilege.

Recently you may have seen that Skype released SkypePrime which enables any user to charge for calls they receive. Why does this apply to you? Well as well as offering your FAQ and email support, another option is to offer paid for telephone support over Skype.

Find out how SkypePrime can be useful for you

About Mashups

Time is over, but mashups development continues

Antoine Bertout, SDP Partner Relations Manager

It was June 2007 when the Skype Developer Program started looking towards to the following year and began working on the 2008 API roadmap. We decided that instead of only having a round table discussion with our engineering team in Tallinn, we would collect information through different channels to ensure we were listening to all third party requests. One of the most prominent suggestions was about mashups.

We decided to test the waters by introducing a mashup competition around the Skype public API. Within a week of our first meeting programmableweb.com and Skype Journal were supporting and sponsoring the event: Skype’s first Mashup competition from 1st of July until the 31st of August 2007 with a trip to Prague for the winner.

Continue reading

Extending our Reach

Skype Approved Integrator

Paul Amery, SDP Director

At the Skype Developer Conference in Tokyo, SDP announced the launch of the Skype Approved Integrator (SAI) service. Skype Developer Conference in Tokyo, SDP announced the launch of the Skype Approved Integrator (SAI) service.

Release notes to version 1.0.28 are available on DevZone blog.

What is SAI?
How it works?

Find out here

From Certification

New Certification Specs update cycle

Kristo Aav, SDP QA/SW Certification Engineer

As most of you probably know, Skype Developer Program also runs certification - developers can submit their products and we test them to see whether they can be certified or not. If a product is Skype Certified, it is like a "label of quality", it ensures that the application works as it is supposed to work, doesn't crash unexpectedly nor harm computer in any way, is easy enough to use and so on. Products are tested according to certain requirements, everybody can test product oneself according to them before submitting it. There are different categories for applications like Sharing, Productivity, Personalize etc and developer must decide which category the product belongs to. The majority of requirements apply to all products but each category has also a set of specific requirements, for example, Productivity application must provide additional functionality not covered by Skype and on Sharing application all parties must be able to see what one has shared.

Find out more

Caitlin's corner

New Extras

Evoca
Evoca Call Recorder offers a unique solution to recording calls. When you install, a new contact evoca-skype-recorder is added to your buddies list. Every time you want to record a call, simply add evoca-skype-recorder to your call as a conference participant. The call recording will then be hosted online and you will be sent instructions on how to retrieve it. From there you can download the call recordings to your computer and share with colleagues and friends. You can also record from your mobile phone and order transcriptions and translations online.

Ministry of Sound
If music is your thing, you're going to love the new Ministry of Sound extra. Install the extra and immediately tune into any of the 13 varying daily shows from the 24/7 live stream. Each day it features a different schedule with highlights ranging from the Chillout Session to playlists from your favourite artists. Alternatively you could listen to one of the on demand channels including Sessions, Chillout, Hed Kandi, Drum & Bass, Alternative, Euphoria and Archive.

Find out more

Avo's TechTalk

Illustrated Guide to Codesigning for Pleasure and Profit

As of Skype Windows version 3.6, it is now expected that every 3rd party application that tries to connect to Skype should be digitally signed. It is currently still possible to connect to Skype with an unsigned application but the security measures make this somewhat inconvenient as well as safe.

Before version 3.6, when a previously unknown application first connected to the Skype, the user got prompted with an ACL dialog...

Find out more

Thanks for developing for Skype,
Paul and the rest of the people at Skype