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In the “Featured Skyper” series, we bring you the profile of a Skype user. Skype has tens of millions of users across the globe, from as different fields of life as you can imagine. This series will be a mix of them – old and young; just started with Skype and been with us since the beginning; computer experts and novice users; from China to Romania to Uruguay. They have different paths in life, but what they have in common is that Skype has made a difference in their lives, and/or they have made an impact on what Skype itself is, by giving us great ideas, input and feedback. (If you want to learn more about the people at Skype, we also have the Insider’s View section on skype.com that introduces you some people working for us.)

Our first Featured Skyper is jetta. Those of you who have been around in Skype-Me forums surely know her – she provides a warm welcome to many people looking for new contacts there. She is currently 59 years old and lives in a small village near Sidney, Australia. As I’m writing this piece in Europe, we obviously had a bit of a timezone/scheduling thing in setting up the talk (which happens a lot on Skype – boundaries just go away!), but all got sorted out nicely.

I had a special reason for picking jetta as our first Featured Skyper. In many ways, she embodies what Skype is all about – to help others, to provide them guidance and assistance and get on with your own life, not being afraid to get engaged in new practices and technologies. As you can read, she spends a lot of time on Skype forums and also helping her mom and associates. When was the last time you others called your parents or paid them a visit?

And now, the word to jetta.

]]>Jaanus: so the first two things Id like to ask you are, 1) how did you get on Skype? How and when did you hear about it? 2) how often/much are you using Skype every day? Who do you talk to?

jetta: I heard about skype 6 or 7 months ago from a friend in Vietnam. I have been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for 15 years & my AA sponsor lives in USA & she also was on Skype via our friend in Vietnam. So now there are so many of us that belong to AA & other 12 step programs using Skype all in different countries.

I also use Skype to speak to a few of my children. I have 3 girls & also fostered 7 others, so have kids all over so a few of them have Skype. It’s just great to be able to communicate with them every so often. I live in a little village 100 miles from Sydney & I care for my Mother who is very ill, so am home most of the time. I sponsor a lot of people in AA — some of them live a long way from me so I told them to get on Skype as well, also a few come to my home & we discuss the program.

So also when I get up in the morning, I give mum breakfast in bed, then get on the computer to see who is on there & love to go to the forum & welcome newbies. Sometimes will also skype them just to say gidday & most of them just love the welcome. I only have 5 that I keep on my contact list as I’m too busy to talk to everyone. My contact list is overflowing with AA members & family.

Also in the middle of the day if I have time I get on to Skype, also before I go to bed I usually do some more welcomes in the forum.

I’m not at all technical & really know nothing about computers, in fact I have just been sent DSL from our phone company & haven’t hooked it up yet as I am very nervous to do that, so will pray to God for the courage to have a go. Possibly tomorrow or Sunday will do it, I just get very fearful of computers.

In fact I should have been on Skype maybe a year ago but kept putting it off, and then when I did hook it up I was nervous to talk to anyone. Then, out of the blue this guy from Portigual rang me and made me comfortable and he still is a special friend on my contact list.

J: Do you use Skype for calls, or also other features like text chat, filetransfer… ?

j: My friend in Vietnam has transfered files to me but I still haven’t had a go at that, maybe need a bit more courage for that as well.

(I see from your profile you are from Estonia. One of my friends who I grew up with — his Dad was born there in fact they started a bakkery here there name is Kubbere not sure if that is popular over there or not.)

J: (very cool you know about Estonia! yes we have many people who went over to Australia during the hard times. sorry, I dont know about that bakery.)

The last thing I’d like to ask you — have you had any particular good or bad experiences with skype that you would like to point out? Is there anything you like or dont like about the program/service? (Im sure there are many, but you can pick the one that is most important to you)

j: To be honest, I have only had one bad experience with Skype. That was with a guy who calls himself skypeologist — I think that’s how you spell it. He got very upset with me because I do too many posts and he was sick of all my nice messages. Thats the only bad experience, I have met some very beautiful people on Skype, too many to count and of all ages.

What time is it in your country, is it cold there? Its Autumn here and just starting to cool down.

J: thanks a lot for your time! I won’t bother you with any more questions. Its currently 3:45PM here (gosh, it must be late there!), its not cold here – we are on opposite parts of the world and summer is just starting up here its currently about 12 degrees C.