What is Skype?
0% (0 votes)
I do, but no one else really does
0% (0 votes)
I think its a bothersome annoyance, just another distraction from getting work done
8% (1 vote)
Some people in the office use it on their personal computers
0% (0 votes)
We use it on office computers for interoffice communications
0% (0 votes)
We use it in the office for some outside calling and as a communication point from people outside
62% (8 votes)
Some Internal and External Calling
31% (4 votes)
We dont even have any landline phones!!
0% (0 votes)
Total votes: 13
Comments
Conference Calls
I work in the YWAM Europe office with Jeff Fountain and I can say that he uses it a lot. Whenever we sit down to meet he's always getting a call or chat message.
The other day we did a first for me: a Eurocom Skype conference call with seven people in four different countries. Jeff started by adding people to the call and I was working in the other room adding people to the chat. When we do it again, I'll probably do both because one person (from Budapest) kept dropping out and Jeff kept having to add him which was a distraction that he didn't need, of course.
As far as I know this is the only practical way to get all of us Eurocom people together in a "meeting". It worked reasonably well for most of us, expect for the person who kept dropping out. We decided that next time we'll have one person acting as a scribe taking notes in the chat so that if someone drops out, they can quickly catch up when they come back online. This also serves the double purpose of keeping minutes of the meeting.
Another problem I had was that the others would regularly hear a screeching sound coming from my end. The problem went away if I just kept my headset muted when I wasn't talking. This did have one consequence that I sometimes started talking and forgot to un-mute myself. If anyone has any idea why this happens, I'd love to hear your comments.
Oh yeah, and the chat quickly turned into some modern form of passing notes in class behind the teacher's back, except for the fact that the "teacher" could read all of the messages. ;-) We were all a little giddy, I think, this being the first time we were doing something like this, and after the first hour the comments quickly degenerated into a melee of humorous comments and smilies.
screeching sound
Hi,
a disturbing noise can have many reasons. Bad connection, bad cable, (almost) feedback, background noise which is not load for you but terrible through the mic. Did you had a fan on somewhere in the room, did it change when you turned your head, other ppl talking in the room, did you use external speakers or headphones, etc. This is just what comes to my mind without really thinking about it. There are probably many more possible reasons for that noise.
Greetings from the MatriX,
neo
feedback
The sound is very likely feedback. It is just like the feedback you get when you hold a mic up to a speaker in a church. I would recommend turning down the mic input level in the sound settings of your computer. (not sure if skype has that setting its self) also if the headset is fairly cheap it may not offer much protection to outside sounds in the ear phones. Try to cover the earphones with your hands so that the sound can't get out of them to the mic.
feedback
Thanks for the comments. I'm using a Plantronics DSP headset 400 (DSP = Digital Signal Processing)so I doubt it's feedback or external noise. The people who hear it say it sounds like a loud screeching noise similar to the raptors from Jurassic Park. (I haven't yet had the heart to look over my shoulder to see if there was one lurking behind me, but I'm still alive so it must not have been).
I suspect it may either have something to do with
a) My internet connection from my computer or
b) My usb port
I haven't contacted either the manufacturer or apple to see if there are any known issues.
internal office use
We don't use skype for outgoing calls but also within our office. To use the chat in a room with 8+ ppl keeps the noise down. Instead of talking all the time for just a quick question.... Just a little hint for those who are sitting in an office with many people.
Also I can ask a question even when a person is not at the computer right now. The folks can answer when ever they are back / available.
Greetings from the MatriX,
neo
Skype for Podcasts
Something that I did a bit of last year, but not yet this year, was to record Skype interviews with our outreach leaders for the web-site. It was a great way to keep people up to date with what is happening in the field.
There are many challenges with doing this, obviously, including having laptops with the people in the field and finding an Internet Connection. One way that we got around this with one team was to have their Skype forwarded to a phone in the country (a mobile in this particular case). The call quality wasn't as good, but it worked...
Skype Maniacs
Well, I would consider myself and my wife to be real Skype maniacs. We try to use it all the time instead of calling or emailing people. I always say, "Cheap is good; but free is better". We have pretty good broadband at our office and at home, so we often Skype our leaders to have accountability sessions with them and to talk to project partners that are usually across the world from us. Just last week we spent two hours on Skype to some folks at the Kona base that are editing a chapter we wrote. It was great! We love it!
Re: Skype Maniacs
YES, I can 100% confirm that. Sometimes the rest of us even have to go off line so that our Master of Skype has enough bandwidth when he is video skyping with half the world.
Just kidding ;-)
But really, a one-on-one via Skype is a whole new experience. I can recommend that to everyone. That almost totally nullifies any time issues.
Greetings from the MatriX,
neo
Big Fan of Skype
On a personel note - I am a huge fan of Skype - my 3 siblings and I live in 4 countries - so it is a great way to stay intouch. Some days we just put a laptop in our kitchen and leave it on with my sister in the USA and so if we feel like chating we can.
One thing that would be fairly inexpensive to set up - is a skype Video conferencing suite at each base (maybe in a coffee area), this would encourage serendipitous meetings, some prayer times and just using technology to connect people, which is crucial in an organisation such as YWAM.
Bandwidth and another option
I think that bandwidth is probably the biggest issue with some of the smaller bases. I think that many of the bases don't even have high speed Internet at all and most of them that do (like my base in Oxford NZ) are only paying for a limited amount of bandwidth per month.
A partial solution may be found in a service that i just discovered called Jajah (www.jajah.com) It is similar to skype in that you go online to use it but there is a huge advantage to it. it uses regular phone to phone communication instead of computer to computer. It is web activated but it uses your phone and dials your friends phone to make the connection. You don't even have to download anything. you just go to the website type in your own number, type in your friends number and click dial. Suddenly your own phone will ring, you pick it up and a voice says, "Please wait while Jajah dials your party." Then your friend picks up the phone and you are talking from phone to phone with no delay or very little. There is no video option with this service.
The service is free from land-line to land-line in tons of countries. I call my friends in China who I met on outreach last year from the US. Some countries have regular per-min charges but they are WAY cheaper than a regular call or even a calling card call. You can check out the service and all the different rates on the website.
Oh sorry, that was a little long.
Nathan
Re: Bandwidth and another option
Hi Nathan,
if your Base has just limited bandwidth quota but is using Skype for calls you should consider to upgrade the contract to get more quota, payed by the money you save from the land-line calls.
This Jajah thing sounds interesting, however, there is one thing with Skype that we should not forget. Skype to Skype (Computer to Computer) calls are encrypted as well as the chat is. Of course not when you call Skype to land-line or cell phone. As far as I know the encryption is not cracked so far, so that (at least at the moment) we can consider this as one of the safest ways to communicate with missionaries etc in certain countries.
PS: It's never too long ;-)
Greetings from the MatriX,
neo
Bandwidth
Thanks for mentioning jajah, that sounds really cool.
BTW, I've even skyped with people who were on a 56K dial-up and it worked great, so somehow I don't think bandwidth should be an issue unless you have 20 people using it all at once. (This does not include video, of course). If you have a limited amount of data transfer per month, then that is another issue.