Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Why VoIP is Music to Kazaa's Ear

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
We have a not-so-quiet revolution in the making here. Voice Over IP (VoIP) services have not really taken off, partially because of bandwidth limitations and partly because of the cost. There's no real incentive to use your computer as a telephone if it's not really going to save you anything. Enter Kazaa (yes, the file-sharing company) with Skype. Essentially, Skype is free VoIP system. Yes, that's right. No more charges for makingf long distance calls. Interestingly, "Skype does not mean anything. It just sounds good, and the dot-com domain name was available." Kazaa's Janus Friis asserts, "We hope people will start saying, 'I'll Skype you' instead of "I'll call you," which means 'I'll call you without paying any rip-off per-minute charges and with superior better-than-phone quality.'" Like I said, a revolution in the making.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 25, 2024 7:38 p.m.

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