INTRODUCTION
“ I just want to start off by saying Thank YOU!!! Skype became a household name overnight with my family. My sister lives ten hours away and my mom is an hour away from me. Our once a month visits and once a year visits became a once a week if not more visits with Skype! Thank you so much for helping reunite our family. The regular phone call was okay but, it is so great to actually be able to live in each other’s world again. We will forever be grateful to Skype and the people that make it possible” (personal communication, October 1, 2010).
Communication amongst individuals has always been an important aspect of this world. Telephone rates have and continue to be an issue for many. But luckily, because of the advancements in technology, PCs and Macs are now being transformed into Skype phones. Although this advancement is not extremely new, its existence alone intrigues me. Skype is the new hype in peer to peer technology (P2P). Skype is a program that allows one to chat (instant message) and/ or video chat with anyone in the world for free as long as both users have downloaded the program. “We have a big ambition with Skype. It is to make it the global telephone company”, says Nikolas Zennstrom, one of the creators of Skype (Thompson, 2003). It is doing that very thing because this free service is popular among all demographics and is growing daily. Throughout this paper I will discuss the history of Skype, the technology that makes Skype what it is and the benefits of this program.
BACKGROUND
Niklas Zennstron and Janus Friis are the founders of Skype. Skype was created in 2003. When I first heard of Skype my initial thought was where did the word Skype
come from and why did they choose that name? Skype is a Chuvash word which translates to “The world can talk for free”. Niklas and Janus of course discovered the Chuvash word before their fantastic creation. Niklas and Janus went through various name selections for this “new thing” that they wanted to create for the world. Skype’s initial name was “Sky peer to peer”, which later changed to skyper ; but then was shortened to the infamous Skype (Dillion, 2003). People were not very receptive of the word Skype in the beginning. “They go Skype what is that? A bird? Or a disease? (Dillion, 2003). Soon, the world caught on and now they can not get enough because “skype is the fastest growing communication application on the Internet” (Gough, 2006, p.4).
According to Skype.com, “Skype users made 88.4 billion minutes of Skype to Skype calls and approximately 40% of these were video calls. Skype’s buzzing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, worldwide. At peak times, there are up to 23 million people online” (Dillion, 2003). So why is Skype so special if instant messaging has been around for years? Skype offers instant messaging and the high quality video call along with it. High quality is the key word!(Gough, 2006 p. 4). The quality of the video, the features and the audio is what sets Skype apart from the rest. Skype offers a plethora of features: Skype to Skype calls, free video calls, call phones and mobiles, conference calls, Skype to go number, Skype access which is useful if you need to get internet access when you are in a hurry. You pay nineteen cents per minute. This feature is good only if using the internet for a short amount of time. Other features include instant messaging, group instant messaging, send files, screen sharing, SMS( text messaging), online number, voicemail, voicemail to text, call forwarding, call transfer, and caller ID (Dillion, 2003). As you can see from the features mentioned above, Skype is use-able not only on the computer. Additional features allow one to use it just like a regular telephone. TeleGeography Research made a report in 2010 stating that Skype to Skype communication made up 13% of all international calls in 2009. A total of 406 billion international calls were made. Out of those 406 billion, 54 billion were used by Skype calls ( Dillion, 2003). This proves that Skype has made a strong name for itself in this technology world.
FURTHER RESEARCH
What enable Skype voice calls? Voice over IP or VoIP ( Voice over Internet Protocol) is responsible for the connections within these voice calls. VoIP utilizes the Internet or a community network to send voice calls rather than using the system that telephone companies use. “VoIP uses real time protocol (RTP) to quickly deliver packets to other VoIP devise users, or even other telephones at large” ( Dillion, 2003). If both computers that desire a Skype connection both have speakers and microphones equipped with their computer and the equivalent VoIP application, then they can engage in telephony from anywhere in the world ( Gogolski, 2005).
Telephony is the entire process of Skype. Telephony allows voice connection through distance. This process is similar to how telephones connect but rather it is done with computers, which hints where the telephone in telephony comes from. Telephony enables voice calls, which has become one of the most popular peer to peer networks. (Gough, 2006, p. 7).
What is it that makes Skype quality so unique? Peer to peer technology (P2P) enables immediate connection with all desired participants. This enhances the performance and omits delays in the voice chat. Furthermore, it makes Skype a protected site because it only connects the participants involved instead of operating the communication through a server. (Gough, 2006, p. 6). Michael Gough (2006), author of Skype Me! From Single User to Small Enterprise and Beyond, provides a great example of how peer to peer networking is useful. “Bob starts off by logging into Skype. The Skype server authenticates Bob and logs him in. Now Bob wants to call Alice, so he initiates a Skype voice call and the connection is direct from Bob’s computer to Alice’s computer via the Internet. The voice call is not routed through a central server, as many solutions are. This improves performance and allows for a more secure voice call” (p. 6). Bob and Alice’s conversation runs smoother with P2P technology because they are the only users involved rather than the entire server. VoIP, telephony and peer to peer technology place Skype in a category of its own. There is a connection amongst them all. VoIP and peer to peer technology help Skype telephony run smoothly and effectively.
BENEFITS OF SKYPE
There are many benefits to this new technology advancement, Skype. One of the most important benefits is that it is free Skype to Skype. Although rates do apply to skypers who call phones, just knowing that they have the option to have a free conversation is a major benefit. Therefore, instead of paying telephone bills every month a Skype connection can take place for absolutely no charge. In my opinion, skyping is ten times better than an actual phone call because not only do you hear the other person’s voice but, you can see them as you speak. It makes you feel as if you are with the person you are communicating with. As Alicia expressed earlier in her Skype experience, she fills that she can “live in her families world again” (personal communication, October 1, 2010). So this tells us that another benefit is that Skype helps maintain long distance relationships.
Conference calling is another capability of Skype. This is beneficial in the workforce because if a member of a business is not present for a meeting, Skype calls can enable that member to know what is going on even though he or she is not physically present. Because of the high level of quality that Skype has, one can rely that Skype will pull through in a time of need.
CONCLUSION
Skype deserves all the hype that it has received because millions of people have already downloaded the program and thousands more are joining the Skype nation each and every day. Technology has truly advanced if one can use their computer to speak with individuals all over the world for free. Online communication has evolved drastically in the past ten years. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, AIM and now Skype. Broadband connection has dominated dial- up connection. “With Skype’s call quality, and its usability, it is at the head of the free peer to peer communication industry pack
(Gogolski, 2005). Skype has truly put online communication in a ballpark of its own.
REFERENCE PAGE
Adam Gogolski. (2005, March). Start saving now with online telephony. Inside the
Internet, 12(3), 1-4 Retrieved October 4, 2010 from Sciences Module.
(Document ID: 809780191).
This source is a scholarly journal from ProQuest. This source was very helpful in explaining what Skype is in a brief manner. I used this source to enhance my understanding of VoIP, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. This source is valid because the information was accurate and helpful. For individuals who are not familiar with Skype, this source would be very relevant because it provided a step by step walk through on how to download the program. The purpose of this journal is another reason why I see it as valid. One of my points in my paper discussed how Skype is beneficial financially because it is free and this journal discussed how online telephony is reducing phone bills. The link is below.
Nicholas Thompson. (2003, October 12). Sir, to Whom May I Direct Your Free Call?
New York Times ( Late Edition (east Coast)). p. 3.1 Retrieved October 4, 2010,
From Banking Information Source. ( Document ID: 422756931).
This source is a scholarly journal from the New York Times. I found this journal on ProQuest This source was very helpful in providing background history on how Skype came about. It was very detailed in where the name originated from, who the founders were and what the expectations and thoughts were on the Skype program. This source was most valid because of its relevance and authority. This source had first hand quotes from the founders of Skype, which was very beneficial to the referencing of my paper. Although a lot of the information in this journal was already seen in other sources, this scholarly journal gave an edge to the accuracy of information because a lot of the information came directly from the founders. The link is below.
Gough, M.,Baset, S.A., Brashars, J.,Chaffin, L., Cross, M., Douglas, D., & Sweeney, M.
(2006). Skype Me! from single users to small enterprise and beyond. Rockland,
MA: Syngress Publishing, Inc.
This source is a book. This source was very helpful in breaking down the technology behind Skype. I used it for an in depth understanding of what VoIP, voice chats and the Skype architecture is. This source provided me with information regarding how fast Skype grew when it was introduced to the world. Overall, this source really helped me fully understand Skype the most. This provided me with examples of the terms that they introduced which strongly enhanced my understanding of the material. The purpose of this source was to break down the technology behind the scenes of Skype, which is why it is valid. For example, this book explained peer to peer networking, peer to peer conferring and the security that Skype offers. Relevance is evident through all of the information discussed above.
A. Johnson, personal communication, Oct, 1, 2010.
This source is an interview. I used this source to get a first hand experience from a skype user. I asked Alicia, if she could say one thing to Skype what would it be. She gave a very humanistic appeal to the benefits of this site. This source is valid because it fulfilles 4 out of the 5 valid points. It is current, relevant, accurate, and has a good purpose. Her purpose for using Skype enhances the benefits portion of my paper.
Dillion, A, (2003, August). Skype. Retrieved from
This source is a website. This was the most helpful source. This is the actual site of Skype and this was extremely valid because the information was very accurate, relevant and most of all current. There were a lot of behind the scenes stories and experiences that I found on the Skype site that was very beneficial to my paper. This source was very similar to the interview in a sense that the information was received out of a source that was 100% aware of this technology advancement. If anything, the information received from this site is most relevant because it is the actual Skype page.
