Hi, John! Hi, Tim! You know that lost continent that never made it onto your map of the Battle for the Internet Economy? Found it! It’s the continent of realtime communication. I’m naming it Skypelandia. I’ve been exploring and here’s what I found.
Skypeland has a kingdom in the heart of realtime communication. Skypeland is surrounded by larger countries, tribes, and cities.
Let’s start to the North, where we think the first Skypelanders started: in the Messenger Isles.
The islands are populated by tribes of instant messengers. Nearly all of them support voice over IM but some go further. If you look to the southeast you’ll find the Port of Unified Communications where they bring ornate enhancements to to simple messaging and calls.
Some tribes believe in thumbing very short messages, and use texting tools from the Marconi Empire, where mighty totalitarian institutions are all about telephony.
The empire has five principalities: the Landliners are the oldest, descendants of the Telegraph Empire. They gave rise to the Wireless, Handsets, and Boxes principalities. Nobody knows where the Over The Top gang came from.
On the northwest coast, clockwise from the Messengers, you’ll find Identity Ridge.
A strange combination of infighting and cooperation results in a vibrant ecosystem. The Presence and Activity peoples rewired realtime messaging, contributing to a sense of immediacy throughout Skypelandia. The Badge People are spreading the idea of identity as currency, letting their members sign in everywhere with just a few simple credentials. The newest people are the Personal Data Stores, makers of identity vaults and backpacks that let individuals and small groups own their data.
Continuing down the coast you’ll come to Confabistan. Confab ergo sum (I meet, therefore I am) is their motto.
Their villages seem to fall into three camps: those who use their ears and those who use their eyes to meet with small groups, and the unseemly Live Casting tribes who want to do everything in public.
Confabistan is just up the west coast from Collabonation.
Collabonation is the land of self help books, personal planners, and heightened productivity. They are all about Getting Things Done Together.
Continuing down to the southwest corner of Skypelandia you’ll find a free agent nation. Language tutors, doctors, engineers, designers are all finding work and working remotely.
On Skypelandia’s southern Riviera you’ll find Graph Masters. Wizards and magicians rule these towns by fostering conversation through social objects. On the mainland you’ll find communication social objects dominate, like email, updates, or even photo sharing.
On the Candyland Peninsula, the Graph Masters lead using immersive or casual games to trigger conversation.
Up the river, craftsmen forge social graphs into weapons used in great wars between the mages. An underground movement fueled by a migration from Identity Ridge is handing out these weapons to the citizens, hoping they will wrest control from the Graph Masters.
East of the Graph Masters you’ll find the sparkle and sleaze of Madison Men Marsh.
The Mad Men don’t talk, they pitch. And what they sell most is advertising. Some offer close integration of Skypelandic tools for call centers. Others try to sell click-to-call links on web pages. Many bring prospects to merchants through classified advertising. Others through business listings. Some through directory assistance.
Hollywood 2.0 is between the Mad Men and the Graph Masters, with strong ties to Collabonation and Marconi Land.
Like the Candylanders, both the Team Talk and Casual Gamers help people talk as part of their leisure activities. A strange new fad is Couch Talk, where people go their living rooms to talk to people in other living rooms.
As we move up the eastern seaboard, Makers’ factories churn out gear for realtime communications. Products for cars, phones for televisions, social media telephones, and gadgets that bring over the top telecom to traditional phone systems.
The Platformers occupy the easternmost peninsula, next to the Makers and the Marconi Empire.
The Platformers give tools to the Makers that let them build new capabilities faster than ever. They offer features and scale but they seem to compete on access to the people of Skypelandia.
So, there’s your continent. Skypelandia’s coasts with many peoples and Skypeland at its heart.
Skypeland has a Foreign Policy for all of this. They send diplomats, spies, and trade delegations in most of these places.
Skypeland engages with five themes. Consumer Talk, Skype in your Hand, Skype at Work, Skype at Play and Skype as a Platform.
It’s all very exciting. I can’t wait to show the pictures I took.
Phil Wolff, Skype Journal
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About Phil Wolff