Folks over at SkypeJournal believe that ability to blog a Skype IM chat is something folks would pay for, and thinks well, its a great idea. Not sure — Control+C (or Apple key) does the job, easier and better, and more importantly cheaper. But then, common sense is quite uncommon these days!
people over there need to get outside of the box. the box being their skype fixation.
Om, I never said it was a GOOD idea. Just laid it out there. (More ideas at the same batting average = more home runs. Unfortunate side effect: you strike out more.)
What does the blog this button mean? For bloggers, a common thread in successful design has been cutting the distance between the impulse to post and the “submit” button. So visualizing a “post this chat” symbolizes exactly that.
Is it feasible? Since there are widely used APIs for posting to blog and wiki servers, I’d think the task would not be difficult.
Assuming it’s buildable and built, will people use it? In the workplace, blogs are often used as notepads to capture phone notes, meeting notes, task status, schedules, etc. Part personal branding and part knowledge work.
As more communication takes place in clients like Skype, regardless of the mode, many users will want to repurpose the remains of their conversations. For a personal example, I wish I still had the voicemail my mother left me before she died so I could hear her voice now. SBC deleted it before I had a chance to record it.
It may look like feature creep or overdesign. Perhaps it is. But blending the Skype client into other communications media builds on the time and social capital people have already invested in social media like flickr or ecademy, and in their personal and team productivity tools.
Do I think people would pay for that one feature? No. But will blog readers and writers expect that kind of feature as part of a companion product, maybe their blogging tool or their newsreader? Soon.
Part of the point is that I can’t build a hack for my Vonage account. Or my Yahoo! messenger client. No APIs. I want people to think about how easy it is to build on the Skype client and Skypenet, and what that low barrier to entry means for everyone who’s got a legacy system.
Craig, thanks for the suggestion to think outside the Skype box. What else would you like us to write about? (I just saw Batman Begins, and I could write about that I suppose.) Skype Journal was started this February so we’re still defining our scope. We’re covering a beat and you’re right: it’s more than Skype. And it’s not all favorable. That’s why, aside from the name, we’re an independent publication.
On the other hand… more people are using Skype than are blogging. As cultural, economic, political and technological phenomena go, don’t you think there may be something to write about? We do, we are, and we’re digging deep into what it means.
Your faithful reader.
Phil Wolff
Hiya Om,
Continuing on Phil’s comment, we were just juggling with the idea for the fun, ending with me making this lame mockup, as an example.
It’s true that Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V are automatic one-touch actions for most users. But then, sometimes the quick link or shortcut button makes our life easier, by exempting us from the tedious process of blocking text, copying, clicking the blog site link, pasting, editing, and submitting.
Tedious, it is? we can live with it, definitely – but it costs us in 1-2 extra minuets and some 4-5 extra clicks.
Some people can really get the nerves about these little “chores”.
Will people pay for exporting content from their Skype chat to blogging tools or other KM software? I’m not sure, probably not.
But if it saves them 5, 10 or 20 clicks a day – I think they might just like it. It’s not a killer feature, but it could tie some ends efficiently.
Here’s another possible use – “export to sharepoint”. I’m a heavy sharepoint user, and many times our skype chats end with a humble request of “please copy these tasks to sharepoint”.
Having a quick shortcut button for that will definitely save me some rants 🙂
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