John Cummings
Skype is the ‘Jetsons’ philosophy for communications. I started using Skype to talk ‘eye-to-eye’ with my sister across the country. Then, when I found it was more than a novelty, I began to encourage various colleagues to get on Skype.
At first, using the tool was a bit uncomfortable, because I didn’t know how to casually act in front of the camera during a routine conversation. Once, I positioned the camera and made it more friendly with lighting, background and positioning me correctly, it became a comfortable ‘breeze’.
I found that we could accomplish more than just a conversation, by showing each other documents and information via the camera. I also enjoy seeing the facial expressions when I present a questions or comment to the other party. Often, I can ‘read’ a person’s body language during the visit, which helps the overall direction of the conversation.
Skype works well when talking to someone in another state. I’ve found that clients and critical business contacts feel more comfortable, it gives them the perception that they know me better because of being seen. Since, I deal with creative people in various parts of the country, a quick call on Skype can accomplish an abundance of issues without traveling, emailing, faxing or other time consuming business approaches.
Another benefit to Skype is that my wife’s mother is hearing impaired and signs, so using Skype created a visual communications for the deaf which has eliminated faxes and other antiquated means to communicate.
There are drawbacks with Skype. Often the visual signal seems like a stop frame, delay or jitter and a black screen appears then the party seems to vanish in a black hole and later (in most cases) reappears. Sometimes, the camera continues to focus because the person is moving around while talking or is very grainy (not Skypes fault, just a cheap camera). Bandwidth varies and some computers don’t have a large enough processor to handle the video and audio loads. A Skype call (so far) is never quick, it’s not a phone call it becomes a visit. But, a Skype to Skype call is free, so you can’t complain too much.
Skype has given our business and personal communication a great boost bringing us into the 21 century, another dimension in how we conduct business. If Microsoft incorporates the system into the new line of TV’s (as rumored) it could become the communication tool of choice in many households.
