Yesterday in the online Wall Street Journal:
MICROSOFT agreed to buy internet phone company Skype Technologies for $US8.5 billion ($7.8bn) in cash -- the most aggressive move yet by Microsoft to play in the increasingly converged worlds of communication, information and entertainment.
The deal will let Microsoft "be more ambitious, do more things," chief executive Steve Ballmer said in an interview.
The software giant was motivated to acquire Skype because communication technologies have been "the backbone" of Microsoft's growth in recent years and that Skype has "built a real business" in the communications field, said Mr Ballmer.
In a joint phone interview with Skype chief executive Tony Bates, Mr Ballmer said Microsoft sees an opportunity to expand Skype's reach by blending it with technologies across Microsoft's vast portfolio of products, including the Xbox videogame console, Windows Phone software and Lync communications product for businesses.
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Our book club has used Skype to speak with authors of the book we are currently discussing and just finished reading. It has been fun and informative and definitely influenced our members to read more of the same author. They felt they had gotten to know them, felt a strong connection to them, like they had become their friend. This is what made Blogs grow in popularity. Blogging put the author/writer in touch with their reader. Allowing a reader to comment on the writers article or book review helped develop relationships.
Please share with us how you as an author or writer have used Skype to promote your books and writing or how you think you might in the future.
And have a great 'Over the Hump' day!
Diana
6 comments:
I haven't used Skype but we do use IM to video conference with grandkids. We are also trying to work something out to be able, like you, to conference with an author in our church book club.
My brother and I have Skype dinners. He lives two states away and he and his wife set me on the table and we just chat over 'meals'...its a lot of fun.
Never thought of interfacing with a book club. How fun!
Like Raquel (I like the idea of Skype dinners, Raquel!), we use Skype for personal reasons now. I've heard of using Skype between agents/authors and authors/readers. I'd like to utilize something like that in the future to connect with readers. We also use Skype-like technologies in education.
It'll be interesting to see what changes occur in Skype through this transition.
I always think of the Jetsons when someone mentions Skype. Remember Judy rushing to rip her hair curlers out so her boyfriend doesn't see her looking tacky?
I think Skype is a terrific idea for interfacing in the publishing world. I have yet to sign up, but I'm sure I will soon, since we have three grandkids three states away. Oh, and their parents,too. Almost forgot them!
I use Skype all the time. So often, in fact, that I have multiple accounts. One for games because it's better than most game-native chat clients so my friends and I use it for that. I have another to talk to my friends and family around the world for free, rather than paying 10-20 cents per minute. I've even got a third one to be used professionally for job interviews and teleconferences about retreats that I organize. Overall, it's an incredibly useful tool for keeping in touch with friends and getting in touch with business contacts.
My favorite writing partner moved recently and we can no longer visit daily. But twice a week we get on Skype, me in my office and she in hers, and we quickly check in. Once we know all is well with one another, we talk writing steadily for 45 minutes. It's great to do this, and we don't lose the benefit of one another's input.
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