Ripples across the Skype pond

Today I had a couple of "cold" contacts via Skype, one from the regulatory affairs manager of a UK ISP, and another from a sell-side analyst at an independent firm. The former was an accident. He inadvertently hit my "Click-to-Skype" link (for those who don't know, it's simply 'callto://Skypeusername' - and makes me wonder about the scope for future abuse, e.g., people posting links like 'callto://tonyblair'), but we subsequently had a fruitful chat. The latter contact was intentional, initially via email, then migrating to Skype.

The sell-side analyst is a name I know from many years back, though we have never met (I generally tend to shun the analyst circuit as a dry well when it comes to the issues I focus on - this may be unfair on my part, but has done me no harm to date). He told me that, not only is he able to use Skype in the workplace without fear of recrimination, but his firm is teetering on the brink of migrating to Skype en masse. There we go - when financial institutions in the hallowed City of London, retrograde in almost every other respect (family-friendly work practices, IT paranoia, macho work culture, management control, you name it), adopt Skype, that is truly something compelling.