Skype Awareness Builds

Forget the AT&T Picturephone shown at the 1964 World’s Fair. Dismiss satellite transponder delivery of video (and its huge cost) and instead take advantage of what Skype can deliver…and for proof here’s a one hour Oprah show devoted to Skype video sent from planes, submarines and explorations. (via GigaOm).

I know all too well how powerful Skype can be. Two years ago I did an event in Minneapolis for a small group where the speaker came in live from Sydney, Australia over Skype. This man, Malcolm Cohan, directed television commercials in that country so set his lighting — and projected his personal energy — in a way that came across quite well. I setup a video camera so that he would have a great experience (and closer connection to audience members) since I could pan the audience, zoom in on a questioner, and Malcolm could even see them laugh at his jokes (essential feedback when doing thing like this virtually).

Like Oprah did with Twitter, this sort of awareness of Skype is certain to continue its acceleration and its adoption by mainstream users.