CC MEMO -- Communications

Skype

At the CC meeting in San Francisco last week, we demonstrated the use of Skype between a couple of us early-adopter-types who were sitting at the meeting table online with our laptops. For those of you not already using it, Skype is internet telephony that is free computer-to-computer (no spyware, no adware), and is very low cost computer to landline. All you need is the software (free to download from http://www.skype.com/) and a decent internet connection (56k or better seems to do the trick). If you do not have a mic and speakers built into your laptop you will also need a cheap headset (US$15). No, I do not own stock in Skype nor am otherwise connected with them, but do commend it to you for intra-team and inter-team communications.

Coincidentally, at one stage in our meetings last week Bryan Willis called me via Skype, and using just the built-in laptop speaker and mic on my machine the CC members sitting around the table had a perfektly good "speaker phone" conference with Bryan, who was in Malaysia -- and, again, it was free.

CC Directory

Speaking of Skype, the latest CC Directory is attached updated to the minute including now Skype Names for those of you I know have it. All updates to the Directory are in red to make it easier for you to see them. Soon this will be posted on the CC blog/website as a downloadable document (behind a password soon to be provided). My thanks to Tamara Martyn for her continuing help in keeping this updated when some of the rest of you are, well, a bit slow on providing us with current info.

CC Blog/Website

Thank you for your many kind comments on our new site (http://www.challengercommission.com/). You will be pleased to know we have had over 400 "visitors" to the site since I stuck a counter on it two days ago (see the very bottom of the main page). As always comments and suggestions are welcome. As to the public/private discussion we had in San Francisco, it seems clear we made the right decision -- keep it "public" to the extent possible and only password (for CC members only) certain sensitive documents and works in progress, but otherwise strive to be as open and transparent as possible. I note several very complimentary ("shocked") comments in the past couple days on various AC websites, including this one today on Mariantic (http://mariantic.co.uk/ac/six.htm#blog):

"The agenda of the recent Challenger Commission meeting was leaked on Sailing Anarcy [sic] (nothing new there). Everyone said 'very interesting, I'd like to be a fly on the wall'. Now here's a dangerous precedent. You can be a fly on the wall. The full minutes [well not quite] of the meeting are published on the Challenger Commission website. That's the sort of open-ness bsuinesses and public bodies promise but rarely deliver. It quite shocked the America's Cup world, which thrives on rumour, leak and innuendo. Dangerous? Of course, if everybody promptly and honestly published details of all of their dealings what need would there be for a "Rumour and Speculation" page? And this [Mariantic Rumour and Speculation] page gets 80% of the site's hits. Only joking. The site is very welcome, keep it up Tom. Now similar a similar blog from Michael Bonnefous is eagerly awaited...."