I just listened to the latest IT Conversations podcast with Skype’s VP of Marketing Saul Klein. He was interivewed by Larry Magid in the Larry’s World series, and as usual it was an excellent listen. They covered a lot of ground, from the growing penetration Skype is continuing to experience (180,000 new users per day!), to using Skype as a broadcast/podcast tool, to how Skype and other VoIP services are exerting pressure on closed environments that have traditionally enjoyed profiting from high-margin telecom charges (colleges, hotels, airplanes), to the new video chat capabilities of Skype 2.0. Saul mentioned the new Logitech Quickcam Fusion, a high-end web cam that even employs face-tracking technology which allows the adding of avatars to your video calling experience. I’m going to have to get my hands on one of those and play around.

I’ve long been a fan of Doug Kaye’s IT Conversations site, and I also want to put in a plug for the newly launched Conversations Network. Doug has plans to greatly increase the amount of valuable spoken-word audio that will be preserved and made available there (under a Creative Commons license) from all kinds of conferences and events all over the world. His goals are noble, and his model is much like the public radio system we enjoy in the U.S. If you want to support these efforts you can sign up to be a paid member of Conversations Network (I just did), but all the content produced there will continue to be freely available to non-members forever. Good luck with this endeavor Doug!