Skype ou le téléphone de pair à pair (par les créateurs de Kazaa)

Via Michel Dumais. Une révolution que ce logiciel Skype. En tous cas, une très bonne idée (des créateurs de Kazaa) qui vous permet, via un réseau peer-to-peer, d'appeler au téléphone vos amis qui utilisent eux aussi Skype et donc de converser via votre ordinateur... 50 000 téléchargements du logiciel en moins de 3 jours. 160 000 au total...
A télécharger ici (configuration requise : PC avec Windows 2000 ou version ultérieure).

Et pour comprendre pourquoi c'est si judicieux, allez visiter cet URL ; extrait :
"For the Kazaa founders P2P telephony became a natural next step where P2P could have a significant disruptive impact and Skype was founded to develop the first P2P telephony network.
Internet-based telephony – Voice-over-IP – (VoIP) has been around for years but has not reached the mainstream market. The reasons for this are quite clear to those of us who have tried VoIP software:
* Products which have a true cost-saving advantage over standard telephones do not have comparable quality.
* Call-completion rates are very low due to firewalls and the use of Network Address Translation (which renders over 50% of residential computers unable to communicate with traditional VoIP software).
* The User Interface is typically bloated and requires substantial configuration and technical skills.
(...)
Utilizing our experience in creating the most popular decentralized P2P network in history (KaZaA) and the largest P2P-based content distribution network (Joltid PeerEnabler), the Skype team has succeeded in leveraging all of the available resources in a network. This has allowed us to raise the call completion rate and quality to levels approaching, and often exceeding, that of POTS (“Plain Old Telephony System). This is all achieved without the need for costly centralized resources. In addition, we also like to think that we have created the most user friendly interface around!"

La révolution de la voix IP via le peer-to-peer pourrait faire très mal aux opérateurs téléphoniques si le phénomène prend de l'ampleur (et c'est bien parti !). Voir aussi ce qui va se passer du côté des messageries instantanées...