I've been Out & About to a lot of different events in the past few weeks. STEM education summits. Cape demographic summits. It seems that summits are all the rage right about now.
It's an interesting trend.
It was all the more interesting because, in the middle of all of this, uhm, summitry, I received an email from someone with whom I was trying to set up some conversation time. The message was short and simple:
"Do you Skype?
Now, for those of you whose response to that question is something along the lines of "duh, who doesn't" ... well, just bear with me for a while And for the rest of you who may not know a Skype from a scallop, come along for the ride.
Skype (which rhymes with type) came on the scene in 2003. It an application that lets you talk in voice, chat by typing, and see each other in video from your computer using a standard broadband internet connection. Today it boasts 220 million users around the globe.
In September 2005, eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion. Earlier this month, in a sort of admission that perhaps a voice over IP (VOIP) play was a little overvalued, eBay announced a $900 million write-down against the value of Skype.
But that's the business stuff. In the world of daily use, millions of people are Skyping and it seems that "to Skype" has become a verb. Do you Skype?
I wasn't quite sure how to answer that inquiry. And I have to confess that I was mostly aware of Skype in a vague sort of way, as a startup venture acquired story, and as a way to do cheap international calls.
So I went off to skype.com and prowled around a bit. It's got a nice light blue, fluffy cloud sort of visual identity. The text and presentation reads more like 'welcome to another form of social networking' than 'cheap phone card replacement' or 'another way to call someone one.'
And that's because Skype is not the phone.
The hardware with which one interacts is part of what creates a user interaction experience. Holding a box up to your ear is part of 'talking on the phone.' The hardware over which the service is delivered creates a physical sensation of an intimate one-to-one talk.
"To Skype" is not the equivalent of making a phone call. Talking to your laptop change the equation. Then, add in the little video window and the chat box and suddenly this is something completely diiferent.
I found someone I knew who Skyped and added that address to my 'friends' list. A click and I was connected. The friend answered. Another click and I could see the friend in a tiny on-screen video window. One more click and there was the picture-in-picture experience of seeing myself waving too. I could watch me watching the person on the other end of the conversation.
But not only was I connected to that person - I was also connected to that environment. The dogs in that household heard my voice and barked. Other household members dropped into the frame and said 'hi.' We talked, looked, and typed at the same time. Someone else in the household logged into the chat session and pasted a block of information that answered a technical question I had. It was a multi-sensorial, multi-person exchange. It was not simply another way of making a phone call.
This kind of interaction has its own sets of attributes. It isn't a phone call. It is something else all together.
Humans are pack animals and connection and communication are consistently the applications that drive technology. Even as the world goes more global, it also grows smaller and more person-to-person or person to small group connected. I can Skype with anyone on the planet. I can see their environment, their face, the people and things in their world. I can share information and words at the same time.
It is a new paradigm. And it is one that takes a little getting used to.
But at the same time, it is also very familiar. In fact, I think the underlying need that drives it is the same one that seems to be stirring up all this summit activity. And in some ways, they are very similar.
The real time act of gathering people together at the same time in the same place to, well, TALK, is social networking. "Friends" (aka, known persons) are invited. They show up at the appointed location. They wear nametags, so others know who they are. They put on a game face of selected clothing and hairstyles. They pop in and out of the room, connect one on one or in small groups. Sometimes they lurk and listen.
This could be describing any of the summits I've recently attended ... real or virtual.
Because as soon as you remove that notion of 'real' or 'virtual' from this, it all comes down to pretty much the same thing. People being with people around some sort of shared interest. Education. Economics. Red Sox. Housing. Party planning. No matter the topic, it is really nothing more than people being with people in voice, in image, and in information exchange.
Yes, I do Skype. And yes, I do Summit. Do you?
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