…But it’s just not there yet. I mean, we’re free for most users, right?
So this was an interesting bit of news today from TechCrunch and ViVu.
Basically, ViVu created a Skype plug-in called “VuRoom” that will enable multiparty calling and some additional collaboration tools.
Aaaand they’re going to charge $9.95 a month for it. Now, it’s reported that Skype uses some running installations as “supernodes” to share the massive directory and even conversation traffic, which can severely reduce your available bandwidth—even when running only in the system tray! Risking this, and since Skype’s video is lower-quality even for one-on-one conversations, why switch to something that is likely to degrade video quality even more by adding additional callers and spend $10 a month to do it?
Someone over here (I won’t say who), brought up another interesting point: ViVu seems to have faith that Skype won’t natively support multiparty conferencing tools at this level in the near future. Doesn’t that feel like a gamble? If that happens, what will the VuRoom subscribers do?
Sadly, the story mentions they’ll be facing competition from TokBox
and Tinychat, but doesn’t mention VSee. I’ll be the first to admit we’re not (yet) well enough known, but still, when we’re offering a fully featured multiparty video calling/conferencing/collaboration solution to the general public for free, it blows my mind that more casual users haven’t discovered us yet. (I know, I know. But seriously, do most casual users call more than 10 people a month via video? I didn’t think so.)
Readers, tell you friends what’s over here. Start a little grassroots campaign to get the word out. Our friends shouldn’t need to spend money to use these tools!!!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Okay, I’m getting off my soapbox now. 😉
