Skype Prime Beta – a new tool for mediators?

With apologies to Tammy at Mediator Tech whose blog is the place to go for mediator tech stuff, can I tell you about Skype Prime introduced yesterday.

Ordinary free voice Skype is playing an increasingly important part in my practice, both in pure mediation terms – where I use a mix of email/land line and Skype to resolve matters (in particular follow up unsuccessful mediations) and also to communicate with colleagues all over the globe – I am Skyping with Justin Patten of Human Law in the UK this evening.

As I say here at Cold Case, I don’t tend to charge for the follow up stuff…it’s messy and I don’t like waiting to get my bills out, best to do that within a day or two of the mediation.

But Skype Prime may change all that because it enables for the first time paid Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls.

So now you can charge other people for calling you either a one-off fee or by the minute. You set the rate.

All calls start out as free but you can then switch to the paid calling.

The call then proceeds as a paid call and the appropriate amount of Skype credit is deducted from the caller’s Skype account and that money then goes to the receiver’s Skype account.

The provider does not get the call fees directly as Skype credit — rather, they go into a special holding “box” and you, the provider, then receive the revenue via PayPal. Simple!

Oh, Skype takes 30%…hmmmm… (at that sort of cut this might be bigger news for the porn-call industry than mediation practice)

                       

Geoff Sharp

Geoff Sharp is a Commercial Mediator from Wellington, New Zealand. Geoff works in the Asia Pacific region, including New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Pacific Islands. He is a mediator resolving business problems. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Mediators and mediates complex and hotly debated litigation covering… MORE >