I have friends all over the world. I’m pretty sure the only continent where I don’t know someone is Antarctica — and there have been several near misses there. A huge number of those friends I’ve met through Twitter. I’ve met tons of people through Twitter and have have even arranged the occasional face-to-face get-together.
I spotted an interesting news item this morning: Skype now accounts for 12 percent of all international calling minutes. That’s a huge number, especially when you consider that more countries’ international calls are split between local telecomms, as well as online tools like Skype.
I came across a way to send a letter from anywhere: Snailmailr. For 99 cents, this website will send two pages anywhere in the world. Extra pages do cost more, but if you need to include an image or a PDF, Snailmailr can print it just as easily as text. The service will even print images in color for no extra charge.
I’m heavily reliant on Skype, whether I’m staying in touch with family or going over a project’s details with a client. I love the fact that Skype is free, but I’m willing to admit that using Skype can be much easier with the right gear. I wrote an article recently for Matador Goods, sorting through some of the best Skype gear.
I rely heavily on Skype for my work. Interviews, editorial meetings, leaving messages — I’ve used Skype for all of it. I really got used to Skype when I was living in Dublin. I was able to get both of my parents comfortable with it before I left and could easily chat with them without running up their phone bills.
But Skype has become a far more important part of my work than just that. Right now, I’m working on projects that involve people in twenty different states and a dozen different countries. The phone bill I could run up calling all of those folks truly scares me!
