Whisher, a Spanish start-up, backed by Switzerland’s leading phone company, Swisscom, and the venture firm Benchmark Capital Europe is apparently very active for few month now. The principle of Whisher is that Wireless Access to the Internet should be free and accessible from everywhere which is basically the same concept than FON Movimiento, except that you don't need to purchase any specific hardware.

Whisher' users are requested to download an application through which they can share their wireless access (works also with WEP or WPA connections) with other Whisher members 

The newly released version 2.0 beta of the software offers more than just storing and encrypting connections' passwords such:

• Wireless connection manager
• WiFi sharing
• Chat with other users connected on the same wireless access point.
• Multi Instant Messenger support (Yahoo, MSN, AIM, ICQ, GoogleTalk, Twitter, Jabber)
• File Transfer (with users sharing the same wireless AP)
• LAN Support
• GeoLocation
• Other Networks connections (access via commercial access; hotspot, etc..). FON is supported too.
• Around You. Gives you informations about coming events, restaurants around the wireless connection you are currently using.

New services that should be available soon :

• Voice Support
• Global File Sharing 

Plateform supported : Windows XP, Linux, Mac O/S. Vista not available yet.

The software is still beta and some stability and registation problems have been reported. More information on their Blog

I don't want to defend Skype after the outage their login system faced last week (16-18.08.07), as they are doing it lots better than me, but I'm amazed by the quantity of critical and harsh reactions following this unforeseen interruption of service.

I have the impression that Skype critical voices are not so loud and mean when their local ISP, mobile  operator, telephone company, electricity or any other services they subscribe, including indispensable ones such lift, coffee machine, PS3 etc..

Skype outage was the first major glitch for the last 4 years which is more than excellent record in term of reliability. During that period how many time you have not been able to send SMS, pass a phone calls and even access the Internet either from home or at work ? 

In addition, Skype took the decision to compensate their paying customers (Skype Pro, Skype Unlimited,
SkypeIn or Skype Voicemail customers) by extending their subscription for 7 days in a goodwill gesture.

What I would propose is to spead the word among all Telco's and ISP (to start with) that automatic compensations are most welcome whenever they are not able to deliver the service we are paying for (perfect example of bad ISP behavior in Switzerland, video in French). 

Found on BBC website a study, which questioned 1125 IT professional in Europe, revealing that more than 50% of IT projects are not delivered on time.

 

The study conducted by by HP and the Economist Intelligence Unit says the the 3 most commons causes for delay are :

• Outsourcing (it reminds me something)
• Changing priorities half way through (certainly not always an IT responsibility)
• Poor coordination between managers (sic!)

Other interesting points found on the article are that : 

• 51% of European IT's say there would be not risk to their job. This percentage slips to 33% in Asia and 22% in Americas.

• 57% of participants to the study said that less than 50% of the IT initiatives in their firms had a positive outcome. In 2006 this figure was 54%

In Europe Sweden comes first when it is about delivering IT project on time with 44% then follow

• Switzerland 24%

• Czech Republic 20%

• Germany 19%

• Denmark 16%

• UK 11%

• Finland 8%

• Israel 8%

• France 6%

• Belgium 4%

• Italy 4%

• Netherlands 4%

• Russia 4%

• Spain 4%

Source : BBC News