Welcome eBay users My name is Dan Houghton, and I’m the Product Manager for Skypecasts – a new way to have conversations with people across the world who share your interests. My colleagues Eric, Helen and I will be hosting this workshop and we’re looking forward to your questions and comments. This workshop is an introduction to how to participate in and host your own Skypecasts. It requires basic understanding of what Skype is. We’ll cover:

• What are Skypecasts?
• Examples of Skypecasts
• Finding a Skypecast
• Participating in a Skypecast
• Creating a Skypecast
• Promoting your Skypecast
• Hosting your Skypecast

Thanks again for joining! Let’s get started. Dan

Examples of Skypecasts Why not voice-enable your eBay Group or Community Discussion Board, with a live Skypecast event? Some example topics are:

• How to track and improve your sales with Ebay Express
• Ask a panel of Powersellers about effective auction listings
• Techniques for "Green Ear Treatment" on vintage Barbie dolls
• Exciting live announcement for eBay Motors community

Participating in a Skypecast To join a Skypecast, you’ll need to sign in using your Skype name and password, and then agree to the Community Guidelines. Your Skype software will place a call into the Skypecast and a control window will pop-up showing a list of all the participants and the host. Ok, so you’re in the Skypecast, now what? As in a normal conversation you’re free to chime in whenever appropriate or you can simply listen in to the discussion. In larger discussions, the host can mute individual participants, to help control the discussion. Follow the on-screen instructions to request the microphone, if you want to speak. Once you’ve requested the microphone the icon next to your name will change from green to orange and begin to flash. You can also chat by text with the host and other participants, add contacts, and read profiles. To leave the Skypecast, click the red hang-up button in the main Skype window, and close the control window.

Promoting your Skypecast When you create your Skypecast, you can schedule it up to two weeks in advance, to allow plenty of time to build up an audience. Skype will promote your Skypecast in the directory. Here are other ways you can promote your Skypecast:

• Invite your friends by sending them a link to your Skypecast listing via chat or email.
• Publish listings on your Typepad blog using the Skypecast Widget.
• Coming soon: integrate Skypecasts into your website using our simple HTML snippets, or RSS and JSON feeds.

We posted content early to allow you to read through the information. We'll be opening the workshop Thursday, May 18 at 09:00 a.m. PT for questions and comments.

FYI: During the last half of the workshop, we'll do a Skypecast whereby members can experiment with the features and speak with staff and other community members.

Stay tuned....

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

Hi Skype team!
One question we've heard from the community is whether Skypecasts can be kept private.

Thanks,
Michele, Skype Marketing

Here's another question we get from the Skypecasts forum Hello, Testing skypecast recently, I missed the possibility to send out text messages to all visitors at one time. I could message only one by one. Or did I overlook something? Regards, Martina Dan

Hi Eric and Dan,
I went to the Skypecast link to join, but I don't see a 'join now' button or anything.

How will I know when/how I can join the Skypecast?

Thanks,
Michele, Skype marketing

We're working on a countdown, which means that you know how long to go to the Skypecast, without needing to refresh the page, and also a "remind me" function, so you can plan to join a Skypecast in the future.

Dan here: this message is a bit confusing, and actually goes away if you use the Skype 2.5 Beta or later. We've used the SkypeOut infrastructure for the audio part of the Skypecasts product, but this does not mean you are charged for the call -- it is completely free (just like SkypeOut calls to the US and Canada!)

Great questions in the Skypecast. Here are a couple:

1. Why do Skypecasts have 100 people but Skype conference calls only have 5 people?

2. If I'm on a Skype call and then join a Skypecast, does that interrupt my Skype call?

3. Does sound quality decrease as more participants join?

4. Do you think you'll add video to Skypecasts?

Thanks!
Michele, Skype Marketing

Q2. If I'm on a Skype call and then join a Skypecast, does that interrupt my Skype call?

A. It's the same as making a second Skype call -- the first call is put on hold.