Congress says 'yes' to Skype calling for House members!
For a year now, Republicans have pushed the use of Skype, a VoIP calling application that boasts over 663 million registered users, for the House of Reps. The VoIP, instant messaging and video conferencing application was proposed as a means to cut costs for the House and this past week on June 28th congress announced that it would hold teleconferences on its WiFi network with voice over services from Skype and ooVoo.
The Committee on House Administration released the following statement:
"We are pleased to announce that, after working with Republican Leaders and various House stakeholders, Members and staff can now use popular video teleconferencing services within the House network to communicate with constituents.
"During a time when Congress must do more with less, we believe that these low-cost, real-time communication tools will be an effective way to inform and solicit feedback from constituents. We thank the CAO for ensuring that Members and staff can utilize these services while maintaining the necessary level of IT security within the House network, and look forward to identifying additional technological solutions to communication and transparency roadblocks."
Despite the various security breaches in the past, Congress was able to come to a modified agreement with the Skype and ooVoo in order to maintain a high level of information technology security.
Microsoft Buys Skype
Just a month ago Microsoft made its biggest purchase in the company's history, when it acquired Skype for $8.5 million. The recent merger will help improve Skype's features and add new and improved applications. Perhaps the merger was a deciding factor in the government's decision to implement Skype calling. I can bet Microsoft is happy about this purchase!
Skype will help reduce communication and travel costs for the House members. Government can now hold meetings of high importance over the advanced network and let's not forget, cutting costs in D.C means less superfluous spending of tax payer's money!
Government Security
Despite the modified security measures, one has to wonder if breaches will be an issue with the new communication service. As more and more stories of large corporations experience damaging hacks, we can only hope that security stays tight where it is needed the most.