Skype Reaching Out to Developers

The fourth annual eBay Developers Conference opened yesterday in Boston, and Skype is encouraging developers to attend and become part of its Skype Extras program. The conference runs through Wednesday.

The company built Skype Extras up to bring some direction and momentum to the efforts of independent apps developers who are making use of the program's APIs to create applications that extend and enhance the VoIP service. Accessible through the latest version of the softphone client (Tools/Do More/Get Extras), Extras Manager showcases and facilitates the downloading of more than 50 Extras, in some 10 categories.

The basic idea is that Skype selects and certifies the interoperability of the best add-ons submitted, thus enriching the Skype experience, and developers get a far more efficient conduit through which to distribute their work.

Ted Stevenson reports