Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

PhoneBoy and to some extent Dan York get the gold stars here.

Both are security experts and have a real expertise in Voice. Dan hosts a regular podcast and Dameon does a wide range of blogging. But at heart both are white hat hackers, and what Dameon did in finding the flaw in a released version of iSkoot so quickly was worth its weight in gold.

This is just one more example of how the Blogosphere helps the startup community, whether asked or not.

It reminds me of the time when an former eBay executive said to some bloggers who were only trying to help "I’m not sure if you’re reporters, developers or consultants so I don’t know how to deal with you" and then repeated the same comment to me in a slightly different way. Basically, shortly after the eBay purchase Skype had a great chance to embrace the blogosphere, but only in the last six months or so has that really happened well, and largely at the direction of their out of house PR agency in NYC and Chaim Hass, who leads it.

Compare that to iSkoot whose team since the moment the first post went up, were engaging with the bloggers and after a first, reply, after some behind the scenes work a few of us to people we both know at iSkoot (as Dameon points out) the real mystery became clear and iSkoot did the right thing.

This is how the blogosphere helps and will continue to do so. Smart companies embrace passion. It’s only insecure executives who fear their help.

Bravo Dameon, Dan and Jim. Bravo iSkoot.

Source: www.voip-news.com

VoIP seems to be everywhere these days. But VoIP dating? Learn about a new, free service at Click for Nick. (The maps thing really is creepy.)

Voice Over IP Weblog is dishing on the alternatives to the now-defunct PrivatePhone. Check it out here.

VoIP Information tells us about the negatives of VoIP service. Negatives? There are negatives? Seriously though, the author misses one big negative: it won’t work in a power outage. VoIP equipment needs electricity to run, unlike traditional phone lines . . . so if you are in an area of the country that loses power due to snow or tornados or other weather conditions, you could be in trouble. Unless you have a generator, that is.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Pal Paul Amery, who was unceremoniously made redundant in the month of December by the grinches at Skype along with a few others in the developer program, has joined the blogosphere.

Paul will provide some very good insight into VoIP and VoIP software development as well as how to build an ecosystem with developers.

I got to know Paul at the Skype Developer Day in Mountain View last fall, and then met up with him and got to speak at Skype House a few weeks later.

Personally I’m touched by his kind words here on his thank you page. While many people in my profession are strictly mercenary, I’m the kind of person who regularly lends a helping hand to others, especially when times turn tough. It’s part of my early upbringing in business, about giving back to the community that gives unto you something that was made apparent to me by Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider when I worked with the hockey team in the 70s and 80s.

In many ways the giving back is not monetary, it’s helping in ways that create far greater growth. Sometimes its just lending an ear, being another set of eyes or actually doing some work gratis to get things on the right direction. Other times its being supportive, even if you have no personal gain. By giving something good, one gets more in return. I’m happy to have helped Paul and look forward to continuing to.

Source: voipcentral.org

Based on Nielsen BuzzMetrics blogpluse system, the system comprehensively used to measure the popularity of a tag, keywords or URL appeared in the blogs, Skype gains equally popularity to that of American socialite Paris Hilton in the blogosphere.

Skype was positioned in 0.015 to 0.20 percent of blogs in October 2004. It moved to 0.45 range in March last year. Now it is in the .07 to .08 range. It is double increase in the last 18 months with frequent spikes over .09 percent. Where as Paris Hilton is in the .075 range.

Others: Harry Potter (.2), iPod (.5), election (.65), Iraq (.7) and sex (1.4%). The new blogging service Vox is constant at .1 after launching its preview in August; Coke (.225, including all uses of the term) and Pepsi (.1).

SkypeJournal has the full coverage.