The Unintended Consequences Of Skype
from the and-so-it-goes dept
It appears that the NY Times has finally discovered Skype, but their article does make a few interesting observations concerning not just the purpose of Skype but how it's been used in unexpected ways -- mainly for strangers to call each about just about anything. Calls from foreigners to Americans for the sake of English practice are apparently quite common. There's also a story of people looking for local info for a vacation they were planning. It's always fascinating to see how these sorts of unintended uses become more popular -- but, as the article notes, many are likely to go away as the service gets more and more popular, and the spammers and scammers move in (which is already happening). While I've been skeptical of Skype in the past, the ease of use of the service has won over many. It seems to have really touched a nerve for the ability to build a community. Still, there are plenty of challenges for the company going forward -- and business models may be the biggest.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Practice English, fuck
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Practice English, fuck
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Reminds me of the olden days
Was I really that young, foolish and racially insensitive?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
We are English tutors on Skype
www.speak-english-now.jimdo.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]