Early preview of Skypecasts
We all know that people love to talk, so we’re excited to announce an [early preview of Skypecasts](http://www.skype.com/go/skypecasts): a new way to have conversations with people across the world who share your interests. Skypecasts are live, moderated conversations allowing groups of up to 100 people from anywhere in the world to talk to one another.
]]>Skypecasts enable people to discuss shared interests — anything from classic cars and cooking, to home design and computer support. Skypecasts are moderated by the ‘host’ who is able to mute, eject or pass the virtual microphone to participants when they wish to speak. Hosting or participating in a Skypecast is completely free.
How to join or host a Skypecast? See the [user guide](http://www.skype.com/help/guides/skypecasts.html).
Since this is a preview of Skypecasts, we’ll be making many improvements over the coming months, to prepare for the official product launch.
Coming soon:
* Promote Skypecasts listings on your blog with our TypePad Widget (available now from the [Skypecasts front page](http://www.skype.com/go/skypecasts)), or on your website with our simple HTML snippets (very soon)
* Localised version of the Skypecasts directory, in 17 languages
* Usability improvements to make it easier to:
* Find listings in your language
* See who has the microphone and is able to talk.
* Know when a Skypecast is full or has ended
* Join a Skypecast at the right time
* Leave a Skypecast in a single click
### Tips for hosting your first Skypecast
**Choosing a subject for your Skypecast** is the first step you need to take. You can host a Skypecast on any subject you’re interested in, from classic cars to learning Japanese; from how to bake banana bread, to watching World Cup matches together. The more interesting your subject, the more participants you’re likely to have for your Skypecast.
If you’re having trouble picking just one subject, don’t worry — you can host as many Skypecasts as you want and it’s totally free.
When creating your Skypecast, you’ll be prompted to enter a title and description. This is your opportunity to **sell your Skypecast to the audience**, explain why they should join and what you’ll be talking about. You’ll also need to add **keywords** (also known as tags) to allow users to find your Skypecast by searching the directory. These keywords will also determine which syndicated listings your Skypecast appears in. By entering several relevant words to describe your Skypecasts subject, you’ll help users to find your Skypecast and will also ensure your Skypecast gets the best possible promotion.
Make a note of the **time of your Skypecast** so you remember to sign in and host it and don’t leave your audience waiting in silence.
**Promoting** your Skypecast is easy. You can simply send the link to your friends in an email or add a simple HTML snippet to your blog to encourage your friends to join you.
You may wish to run your Skypecast as an **open discussion** or a **one-way broadcast** with questions and answers at the end. Either way, the **Skypecasts moderation tools** will help you. When you’re in the Skypecast, you’ll be able to mute or unmute selected participants or all participants. Muting participants will also improve call quality for yourself and your participants. When participants are muted, they can request the microphone if they wish to speak. You can use chat to ask them what they wish to talk about and can then allow them to talk when you’re happy with what they wish to add to the Skypecast. If you find that particular participants are being disruptive you can even eject them from the Skypecast.
We hope that these tips will help you to host your own Skypecast. So just [try it out](http://www.skype.com/go/createskypecast) and post any other tips you have for other Skypecasts hosts here.
Hi,
I was wondering if non-Skype users can participate in a Skypecast by dialing into a number, or by being dialed by the host or by being dialed by a participant.
sk
sklosky – there are no direct public access numbers for Skypecasts. However, as you note rightly, any Skypecasts participant can create a local conference call and dial anyone else in. And other people can “call in” by calling that user’s SkypeIn number, and that user then merges the SkypeIn call and the Skypecast into a conference. Other Skypecasts users then see only that one user participating.
hello i herd about this service and i would like will this service be friendly to users like my self with screen reading technology?
Hi! Skypecasts is brilliant! I’m organising a conference in July… Would skypecasting each of the sessions to allow for participants not able to attend be a good use of this new functionality? Our conference is about Digital Video in HE – It’s called DIVERSE and our page is at http://elisu.gcal.ac.uk/diverse2006
This is great but these suggestions should be greatly considered:
1. You should have people to be able to come in by invites only.
2. Be able to have a private scession of the skypecast.
3. Be able to have the skype cast recorded and saved via mp3.
4. Be able to have file sharing ect with this skypecast.
Hi,
same question, will a regular phone will be able to join the skypecast rooms ?
Best Regard
Will you be able to create private SkypeCasts?
re: version numbers – windows vs mac.
the skypecast beta is not avail for os/x (hmm, why not have the coolest voip on the coolest platform?!)
anyways, it is hard to figure out what level of functionality is not (yet) present in the mac version because there is not a common/shared/unified versioning system between the two versions.
since it might be too late to rectify this (until maybe ver 3?), could you guys at leats put up a chart that compares the two change files feature-by-feature or version-by-version?!
thanx:dlf
terminuz,
Thanks for the tips on joining a phone call to a Skypecast.
I tried to “merge” the two, and failed.
Can your (or someone else) provide more detailed instructions? I think I missed a click or two when I tried to accomplish this. I ran into a message like “would you like to put the current call on hold and join the skypecast?”
Thanks,
sk
Hi guys, how do I join in a skypecast? I mean, would it be a skype 2 skype (free) connection or via SkypeOut?
ciao, Pietro
It’s better to have an audio indicator to let us know who is talking…..this is good if there are many people in the cast.
When can we expect to have SkypeCast capability for OS X? A SkypeCast would be a terrific addition to my podcast, but I don’t want to have a buy a new machine just to do that.
Thanks.
When I try to join a SkypeCast my Skype tries to call a SkypeOut number +9900111…
Is this normal?
Skypecasts work fine with Skype for Mac OS X. Just sign in on the Skypecasts page and join the Skypecasts normally.
When you join, Skype does indeed dial this weird number +990blahblah. That’s just some internal Skype stuff, the call is actually compltely free, just like a regular Skype to Skype call.
And the other questions:
You can only join a Skypecast by using Skype. But yes, you can trick it, and once you have joined from Skype, you can conference in someone on a traditional phone.
hello, i heard about that service and i want to ask what does that service cots? thanks foor reply
So if I made a skypecast and set it to mute all, would all new particiapants be muted as well or just ones that are already there? Also if I make one can I invite friends into the call and all of the skypecast listeners would be able to hear them as well? Just wondering.
Just some ideas… at the same boat as “iampedro”
1. Sometimes 100 people can be difficult to the host administrates… It will be great if we can limit the number of people… If I will give a language class, for example, 20 people is enough.
2. You should have people to be able to come in by invites only. So… that way we can conduce press conferences =)
3. Be able to have a private scession of the skypecast. Tha same idea as the “invite only”
4. Be able to have the skype cast recorded and saved via mp3. Interviews… classes…
5. Be able to have file sharing ect with this skypecast. Using the same example… language classes… exercises could be shared with all participans at the same time.
Sorry for not answering all these posts. The best way to get an answer, or make a suggestion is in the Skypecasts forum: http://forum.skype.com/viewforum.php?f=40&sid=91977580451697661fffc4f8bb92e36b
See you there (I post as strzelecki)
Is there a way to record the skypecast so I can offer the results or even the entire cast as a downloadable MP3 / WAV maybe even AVI file?
It would be great if we could make skypecasts that were for unlimited duration, kinda like a channel where site’s can make their skypecast and then put links up on their site for members to join.
The maximum 2 hour duration is kind of restrictive and an unlimited duration option would be awesome!
I’m not sure if you have the answer, but I record using Audio Hijack from Rogue Amoeba, which converts aiff files into MP3 using your itunes. It’s only about £7 and is fantastic for recording streaming radio too. I think it only works on the mac though.
I’m interested if integration with joomla site is possible. I’m asking about a joomla component or something like this.
BTW Skypecast give GREAT opportunity to communicate people all over the world “to discuss shared interests.”
Did you ever wish you could chat without typing? Well now you can with Skype’s new Skypecasts. The project was meant as a way to have up to 100 people talk with each other in a moderated room called a Skypecast.
With this you can now:
-Start up a voice conference.
-Start a radio talkshow/podcast.
-Meet people from around the world who share similar interests as you.
Since this is a preview, there is still some work to be done and many users have made good recommendations about what should be available for the final release of the completed product.
Here are my recommendations to Skype from what I have been hearing from users in Skypecasts:
1. Currently, all Skypecasts are public, which means that anyone can join. There are requests from some users to have private/invitation only/password-protected skypecasts.
2. Many users are asking for a way to dial into a Skypecast using a regular phone number.
3. Users wanting to use the technology for Podcasts, public interviews and radio shows want to be able to have Skype recorded conversation and save it to mp3 natively. I found a way to record a conversation using free audio utilities, but there is a problem recording output and microphone at the same time. I have tried two programs or this purpose. PrettyMay (made specifically for Skype) is currently not up to date, is meant to be used with Skype v2.0 and not the latest v2.5. I wouldn’t recommend Pretty May since it causes an echo and does not have a pleasant interface to work with. Perhaps future versions will solve this problem. The second solution I came up with was using OpD2d (which I explained how to use in a previous post). This will record the output but not the input/output together. It is possible to record both the input and the output (on the same track) by using a second computer which simply sits in a Skypecast under another username and records the entire conversation using OpD2d. The problem with this is that you cannot tell who the host is from the quality of the sound. Apart from that, if you are on Mac OS X, AudioHijack ($16) has been recommended and seems to work flawlessly. If you are on Windows and willing to disk out some cash to be able to record, here are a list of utilities that can record a Skypecast.
4. Many users wish to have file sharing abilities with multiple users in a Skypecast chat window (one-to-many,) perhaps even using Bit Torrent technology (many-to-many,) making the transfers faster.
5. Currently the text chat is hard to start up. You must start a chat with every individual and drag them into a common conference chat. As well, once a user leaves a Skypecast, they stay in the text chat room. The moderator is not able to kick anyone from the text chat room, users can only leave a chat voluntarily (and many people do not know how to do that). From the Skypecast window, there should be a simple way to start a chat with all members in the Skypecast, and that chat should be dynamic, kicking users off the text chat when they leave the Skypecast.
6. Who’s talking now? There is no way to know who is talking in a Skypecast unless everyone is on mute and the moderator only un-mutes the person who wishes to speak. An audio indicator should be available in the final product (says Skype).
7. Limitations. Right now a Skypecast can have up to 100 people in it. I have never tested this and I do not even know if it is possible. I heard elsewhere that only 50 people could join a Skypecast. Many users are requesting to have a limit set by the moderator when creating the Skypecast. The Skypecast can have an unlimited duration but will only be advertised on the Skypecast homepage for up to 5 Hours. Many users are requesting that the Skypecast stay advertised for longer.
Hopefully, if all these issues are looked at by Skype, Skypecasting will become a very useful tool in the near future.
If you want skype to be used by everyone than skype me I have an idea onurcaba
Brilliant! I will definitely try this out. I echo the comments previously left by others:
1. Need to be able to password protect Skypecasts in order to make some ‘private’
2. An option to use a SkypeIn or other number so that regular callers/non Skype users can join
3. Ability to share a screen would be really useful (you can see where I’m heading with this–can you say ‘WebEx killer?’)
4. Recording option would be nice–both for Skypecasts as well as regular Skype calls. You could conceivably turn the Skypecast into a Podcast that way.
5. Ability to mix pre-recorded (MP3) and live content
Great idea! I can’t wait to see where this goes.
– Mark Ehr, Denver CO
am english teacher online , The skype helps my students in contact them , Especially if we used the microphone and web camera for our class hours. Please add me in your list if you like to be your teacher in english online or add my id which is alberto1536 or call me at my phone # + 63910 3297 675. Again Thank you and God bless you all !
am english teacher online , The skype helps my students in contact them , Especially if we used the microphone and web camera for our class hours. Please add me in your list if you like to be your teacher in english online or add my id which is alberto1536 or call me at my phone # + 63910 3297 675. Again Thank you and God bless you all !
Hello Jaanus. Thanks for your help.
Let me tell you, that I’ve already created a skypecast; up to here everything went ok. But…. When the hour of my skypecast begginig arrived, I didn’t know how to initiate the Skypecast. I looked trough skypecast help, FAQ too, and I couldn’t find the needed information. I wrote in the searching field, “How to begin a skypecast”; and the first thing that appeared was: “How to end a skypecast”. But how to start it ?
Could you please help us,
Thanks,
Paul
I have a few suggestions:
1. make it so that you can have your skypecast running whenever you want. so you could just like sign on and start it, instead of having to start a new one each time you want.
2. make it so that they could run 24/7, or at least longer than 5 hours.
3. make it so that you can delete old ones.
please take these into consideration. Ive been having trouble lately getting my how to air when i am on, and these are the things that would make it easier for me, and probably thousands of people.